Ryoga's Girlfriend
by DaisukiFox
Summary: Continuation of Ranma's Boyfriend. Now that Ranma has become Ryoga's fake girlfriend, that causes problems between Akane and Ukyo. Why is Ranma fighting so hard to keep Ryoga from leaving? RanmaXRyoga No November Chapter release, no chapter possibility unlikely.
1. Chapter 1

I can say right now, I don't know what to think of what's going on with myself. I know I don't care about reviews, but someone brought something interesting up... that I'm a review whore. They're probably right or at least used to be right. Still, this person called me out and called me a review whore. That I did a thing called a boomerang tactic. Then this person says my writing is good... WTF? How can I even respond to that?

Well, anyways, I was talking with Fuyukazehime and she pointed out a few more things for me. And they're all really good points.

Apology: Listen guys, I'm sorry I've been a review whore and I didn't intend on being one. Once again, I've let my competitive side get the best of me and what I said on my final chapter might have been wrong and a little jerkish. I'm not placed in any ranks and I'm not a higher up of anything in anywhere, I'm just a writer that does modest writing when he can. That's the truth of it... and sorry to those who I've scared away from my work with my constant whoring.

One more thing I'd like to say! Me quitting is considered cowardly... but wouldn't it have been worse if I left without really finishing Ranma's Boyfriend? Wouldn't it have been worse if I left it without at least some kind of conclusion? Answer me that.

Anywho... I'm sorry everyone. I'm happy to see anything anyone would say to me and to those who have given up on me for being such a review whore... I'm sorry. Even if you'll never read this.

Disclaimer:I don't own Ranma! Rumiko... why won't you sell me the rights? Just because the series is over!

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><p><strong>Ukyo<strong>

Inside Ukyo's restaurant the spatula wielding chef paced back and forth with her hands behind her back while behind her grill. Though, she neglected to take her customer's orders while doing so. The moment that she had returned, her customers had gone inside and gathered around the counter. They seemed annoyed with how she didn't seem to notice them.

Ukyo considered her grasp on reality to be rather firm. As firm as one that involved cursed ducks, cats, pigs and girls could be. That version of reality was, of course, very flawed when someone was pretending to be someone's lover whom obviously didn't have the guts to ask out the one he really loves himself. Not to mention it must have been some sort of curse or trick or scheme that Ranma and Ryoga were working on. But... Ranma wasn't into men! Why even go this far? Was there a reason for all of this? Ryoga was far too idiotic to be able to cast any spells by himself. There was only one conclusion Ukyo could come up with and she knew that Ryoga must have manipulated Ranma into a relationship!

'That has to be it! My Ranma honey wouldn't really be into guys unless Ryoga messed with his head! How dare he ruin Ranma honey's head with his weird perverted thoughts!' Ukyo thought. She squinted her eyes shut and turned her head to the person calling to her.

"WHAT!" she demanded, glaring at the offending speaker.

The man was a rather bold old man with a turtle neck sweater. "I'd like to order something, missy!"

It was then and there that Ukyo noticed the small group of people. The okonomiyaki chef sighed and knew that she was open for at least two more hours and money was the very thing that kept Ukyo clothed and from having to live out in the streets. "What would you like...?"

**Ranma & Ryoga**

When the two had returned, they casually played innocent with everyone about their situation; the one involving Ranma being Ryoga's 'fake', possibly temporary, girlfriend was, of course, left out. The rest, they explained, had to do with the dinner double date invite was explained to Soun and Genma(since the batteries in their Game Boys died out). -Ranma, of course, left out the strange kissing scene with them and made sure to make it seem like they had only been holding onto each other and eventually Kuno had gotten the message. Though, now came the hard part...

"Now Ranma, you know we can't afford another mouth to feed!" Soun replied sternly.

"Indeed! Have you gone insane boy-" Genma said, stopping to turn to Soun. "Hey!" Genma growled.

Sound raised one of his hands, stopping Genma from complaining to him. "Now's not the time Saotome, besides, you get my point."

"Look ! It's not like he'll be living here for free! And the guy can't go home 'cause he gets lost all the time!" Ranma explained, making Ryoga fume while doing so. Ryoga was entirely aware of his directional problem and didn't need to be reminded of his other curse.

"You don't need to worry about paying for me, I've got my own food. I've been doing well up to this point," Ryoga explained, placing his hands in his pockets.

"Hey, yeah... I've been wondering how you've been able to get so lost and always seem to be able to eat and buy souvenirs." Akane said, making herself known as she had been standing near them. To Akane's left was Kasumi who seemed delighted at the idea of Ryoga staying over.

"I gotta' say, I've been wondering that too..." Ranma said, turning to him.

"Yes, please do explain," Soun said, hoping that it wouldn't be something stupid.

"When I manage to wander home I see that either my mom or dad leave me some money on the counter, they usually give me enough to last a good while," Ryoga said before digging into his pockets and revealing a decent sized stack of bills. "I only buy cups of ramen from time to time because they're not too pricey and even the ones that do cost alot, don't run me too much yen."

Soun's eyes widened when he saw that stack of bills. "And would you say that there is more yen at your home?" he asked, thinking of where that money could go. Namely his wallet and certainly a positive way to fuel Genma's and his Poke'mon addiction.

"It's been awhile since I've been home... maybe?" Ryoga replied.

From there Soun went over to Ryoga and patted him on the back, seemingly glad to just be near him. "It's an honor to welcome you to our home!"

Genma followed and clapped his hands together. "Glad to have another working hand around here... or atleast one that has money," Genma said, before bowing once. The smile on his face never fading as he did so.

Ryoga blushed in embarrassment but was humble to be accepted into the Tendo home. "T-thank you, !"

"Please my good lad, call me, Soun!" The father of the Tendo sisters insisted. From there he turned to Genma and waved the small stack of yen bills. "Say... are you thinking what I'm thinking, Saotome?"

"Poke'mon cards, batteries and sake?" Genma exclaimed, pulling out his gray game boy and waving it around; the batteries dead of course. The two moved away from Ryoga and decided to take their leave, they had no business with anyone at the Tendo dojo and sake and Poke'mon was the main enjoyment of their life at the moment. The two soon-to-be drunks walked to the door, happily cheering as if they had won the lottery. This spectacle was watched by the occupants of the Tendo home, neither one of them had anything to say.

Once it seemed that they were out of sight, Soun poked his head from around the corner. "Oh, Ranma be a good boy and help Ryoga get to his home, I'm sure there is much collecting that is needed to be done there!"

"No! Wait-" Ranma didn't get to finish as the sound of the front door was heard being shut. "Damn it, I'm tired and those two want me to go to your place now!" Ranma complained, shaking her head.

"I'll go with you two!" Akane said, hoping to learn about the events of the double date; such as the details pertaining to Kuno never disturbing her ever again.

Ryoga turned his head to Akane and stared at her for a moment before nodding his head, putting on a mask of kindness. "Of course, Akane."

Ranma rolled her eyes, this was certainly something new. Ryoga being kind to Akane, it's not liked it mattered to her. They were just going to go to Ryoga's, pick up some clothes and souvenirs, then get the money in order for Ryoga to board at the Tendo home. It seemed sort of pointless to Ranma, didn't Ryoga get easily lost around his house as well? Yet. She was scared of losing a good friend like Ryoga, he would prove to be a good ally, if only she could get him to accept her as a friend. One thing plagued her though, what did Ryoga feel for Akane now? The chat they had before was centered around her being romantically involved with Akane, did that mean that Ryoga was no longer chasing after Akane? And would Ryoga really make her hold up to the title of her being his girlfriend? That still creeped her out a bit, but she had to keep telling herself that she was doing this for them to finally be on good terms. Ranma felt herself gulp, for reasons unknown; even to herself.

"Come on, Ranma," Akane said, already heading to the door with Ryoga.

"Huh?" Ranma said, looking around and noticing that the two had left Ranma to her thoughts. "Hey! You can't leave without me!" Ranma said, following the two out the door.

**Nabiki**

The middle daughter of the Tendo family had been trying to return home with her stealth skills; as to avoid being seen by Ranma and Ryoga. The roof tops provided her with a good way to move around as a free agent; Ranma and Ryoga being none the wiser. It had been just her, monitoring the two cash-cows, smiling the entire time. That was until she saw the only display of affection they harbored for each other that got to her. To think that Nabiki would come this far only to be stricken with remorse. She had gotten what she wanted, evidence in order to finally end the bet between who would get with Ranma. And now of all moments, she lost the nerve because she heard what Ranma and Ryoga said, Ranma pretending to be Ryoga's fake girlfriend in order to keep him around.

"And I was so close this time..." Nabiki said, sighing in disappointment. "Those two knuckleheads make a good couple, doubt they would ever get together at this point if the whole school knew about these," she said, mentioning the film in her hands.

Now that she came to this conclusion, she could only walk home and try to find some way out of becoming Happosai's model. Could she get him to void the agreement between them, just because she wasn't able to go through with her operation? Now wasn't the time to start caring. This was the problem with becoming a business woman, one has to discard emotion in order to achieve anything in this crazy world.

"The only way to make up for this is to get those two together for real..." Nabiki concluded. If they were together then they would have no need for shame, they could push past honor and come to love one another. That came with a problem though, her sister was extremely stubborn and would probably meddle in her affairs. Nabiki figured she'd better get home and deal with her Happosai problem first, but before that she had one more thought.

"Ranma you better know who to choose when this is all over..." she paused, looking towards the sky. "Ryoga or Akane."

**Ranma, Akane & Ryoga**

As far as trios went, this was certainly the oddest trio to date. The air between them was thick with tension. Akane went with Ranma and Ryoga in order to see if her suspicions about Ranma and Ryoga's sexuality were correct. She hoped to Kami(God) that nothing had happened between them. Why was the idea of finally getting rid of Kuno so attractive to her that she would allow Ranma to use Ryoga for one of her schemes.

There didn't seem to be much coming from Ryoga, he seemed to be avoiding her. That was odd, but there was always Ranma and she was always a chatter box when Akane egged her on. The question was... should she be subtle about it or ask it in a clever manner?

"So..." Akane said, looking to the ground as she spoke. "How was your double date, did you get Kuno to leave you alone?"

Ranma's and Ryoga's eyes widened. Why did Akane have to ask her that question? Couldn't she just accept that Ranma had to do what she had to do? And now she wanted details. How should she play this? Akane would want to know specific details, that much she could tell.

"Uh... I pretended to be Ryoga's girlfriend and that got Kuno to back off. Why'd ya' ask?" Ranma wondered, her face becoming a bit grim as she remembered attacking The Lost Boy with her lips. Not intentionally of course.

"But what happened?" Akane asked again, trying to play it off as innocently probing for answers.

Ryoga prayed that Ranma would be able to do what he believed was Ranma's best trait, pull some crap to get them out of this situation. "Uh..." Ranma said, reaching up to her head and trying to remove the flower that Kasumi had placed on her head. It wasn't until now that she realized she lost it.

"Well...?" Akane said.

"Uh..." Ranma blushed, scratching the side of her mouth and then suddenly finding the ground interesting. "You see..." Ranma paused. There weren't many scapegoats she could use at this moment, but luckily for her, one had appeared. "Look, Ryoga's house!"

Ranma pointed, Ryoga looked out in front of him and it was indeed his house. Thank goodness for Ranma's ability to point out his home whenever he needed her. Akane turned to Ryoga's home and smiled, why hasn't she taken the time to ever help Ryoga get there? She knew where it was and it would be nice to get more gifts from Ryoga. Maybe she was always occupied with Ranma and her antics to really take the time for such things.

**Hibiki Household**

Ranma, Ryoga and Akane stood before the Hibiki home. They were amazed at how well kept it seemed, with how much Ryoga's parents were gone, one would assume that the place would be cluttered with dust and all sorts of pests entering the house. The only option was that Ryoga's dog, Checkers, had been trained in the art of house cleaning.

"Checkers!" Ryoga called out, waiting for a response.

"Huh... are you sure that dog doesn't have the same problem as you, eh, Ryoga?" Ranma asked, smirking.

"Arf!" Checkers barked, jumping to the outside fence of the Hibiki home. The black and white colored dog stared at the three visitors with a dull and vacant stare, her tongue sticking out while she waited for them to do something. When she saw that Ryoga had kneeled down and held his arms out to her, she smiled and charged the lost boy and tackled him into a licking fit.

Akane placed her hands to her knees and smiled at the interaction between them. "They're so cute together!"

"Can we get into the house? I don't wanna' spend too much time here," Ranma stated, crossing her arms. Ryoga rose to his feet and held Checkers back, all while smiling.

"Alright," Ryoga said, standing up as his dog Checkers smiled and wagged her tail. The oddly colored canine strolled over to the home, content with having her master return for a while. Though when she looked over her shoulder she saw that Ryoga was walking in an entirely different direction. The dog lowered her head and shook her head.

Ranma felt a sweat drop appear on her head. "Man, you're hopeless."

Akane glared at Ranma and then turned to Ryoga, running over to him and grabbing his arm. "Come on, Ryoga!" Akane shouted, shooting Ranma a look. "It's not his fault he has a directional problem!" Akane huffed, walking the stuttering lost boy into the home. Ranma felt her cheeks heat up and held her hands to her sides, obviously irritated with how Akane was holding onto Ryoga. The red head's eyes widened and she had to compose herself.

"Hey! Wait up!" she cried, following them inside.

Once everyone had gotten into the home, Ryoga was ordered to remain in his room for the meantime while they searched his house for the yen. Ryoga felt that it was unfair that Ranma and Akane were allowed to search his house while he had to wait in his room. He knew he was directional challenged but did they have to be so obvious about his condition that they shouted for him to remain in the room. The least they could have done was heard him out so he could tell them where his parents hide the yen. Was his curse that bad? The lost boy stared out the window of his room and sat on his bed. The bed that felt unknown to him, the bed he wouldn't spend anytime on.

"I shouldn't let this get me down..." Ryoga pouted, concealing his annoyance. Not even Checkers was in the room with him, talk about man's best friend. He sighed and allowed his eyes to close for a second, feeling that now was as good a anytime to consider his feelings towards Akane. Was it odd that he still felt awkward around Akane? Was he still into the idea of being with her? Then again, he probably would have reacted that way to any woman grabbing him and leading him somewhere. He was never very good with women, sad, because he could tell that maybe one girl would like him. Or he assumed that some girl must like him... and his pig related curse. He felt that drove him away from really being with anyone, in any relationship. Why hadn't he considered his fake relationship with Ranma? Well, it was fake. Ranma was indulging him in a strange fantasy that involved him making out with Ranma's girl side. Would he take that up? No, there was too much disgust between him and Ranma to ever really take up the red head's offer. Did it hurt that he had thought about it? Ryoga shook his head and looked out to his window. -

"Why can't I figure anything out..." Ryoga wondered, once again caught in one of those moments where he wasn't able to figure out what was going on in his mind. Did he feel unworthy when around Akane? He had technically allowed Ranma to take Akane at any moment, literally giving up his dream girl because of how lost he felt when he saw Akane's concern for Ranma. And why did Ranma make his heart ache? It was as if something was caught in his throat whenever he recalled any moments about him and her female side. It wasn't possible for him to like her! No! Damn it! He down right refused to have any attraction to her! 'I can't let that bastard into my life! Why am I even doing this! Why can't I just leave and get on with my life!' Ryoga thought, gritting his teeth. 'But I can't help but to like Ranma's girl side...' Ryoga continued to ponder, looking down at his bed. 'No wait... damn it! Argh! I can't stop thinking about that kiss!' Ryoga shouted in his mind, flashes of all his kisses with the red head returning to his head.

Her smile, her laugh, the way she held onto him. How she called his name when they were trying to get Kuno to leave them alone, how she purred when she was suddenly insane with emotion. He even thought about how she put him at ease. How she was the only girl he could talk to without really being scared. "Maybe... Maybe if Ranma was really a girl... I'd..." Ryoga gulped, feeling as though tears were going to come from his eyes. "I'd... I'd..."

"I'd love h-"

'Why am I even thinking about this! Ranma's girl side is a curse! She's just a damn illusion! How the hell could I possibly fall for that stuck up jerk!' Ryoga demanded from his mind. When compared to the hell Ryoga had claimed Ranma brought him, this was by far was the worst. This was the ultimate hell, feeling romantically awkward to his hated enemy. Not to mention he wasn't unable to even recognize the feelings he once held so dear for Akane.

**Ukyo**

Exhaustion came with owning her own restaurant and the female chef would have to take this burden until she married her Ranma honey. That was if she was able to get her Ranma honey to explain himself and beg her for her forgiveness! That wasn't her goal right now. Her goal was figuring out what had happened to Ryoga and his affection towards Akane. Their deal was to help one another when it came to getting the ones they wanted. It wasn't supposed to be Ryoga taking the prize she wanted!

Ukyo seemed to be roaming the streets, but she was, in fact, going to the Tendo home in order to discuss her complaint with Ryoga. That was, until she heard the shrill cry of Ranma's girl side form an entirely different direction. "What could Ranma be doing over there? And why does he have to be a girl?" Ukyo demanded. And thus began Ukyo's hunt for the cursed pig boy.

**Ryoga**

The lost boy had now reached a moment of calm quietness, his mind was sore from trying to properly organize his thoughts. He could hear the calls and shouts of Ranma and Akane searching the house, both of them telling each other which area to check next. And he swore he heard Ranma mock Akane for not searching an area well enough.

"Hey!" a hushed whisper called out to him, then came a light tapping of his window.

"Ukyo...?" Ryoga gasped. The lost boy moved away from his bed, shocked to see that she knew where he lived... and why she hadn't just used the front door like a normal person. "What are you doing here?" he asked, opening the window to his room.

"I'm here to ask something!" Ukyo demanded, keeping her voice as low she could, which proved to be difficult with how enraged she was at this moment.

The lost boy leaned back from her, his eyes widening. "W-what could you possibly wanna' know?"

"I wanna' know why you were making out with Ranma honey, that's what?" Ukyo said, glaring. "Our deal was supposed to be that we help each other get the one we want, so why are you going after Ranma honey, huh?"

Ryoga blushed and gritted his teeth. "It's not like that!" he declared. "H-how much did you hear anyway...?" he asked, blushing and calming down his tone.

"I didn't hear much..." Ukyo said, blushing in embarrassment. She was too shocked at the moment to really listen in to what they were saying. "What's your deal with Ranma anyway, are you really into him or are you planning on being some pervert and two timing Akane and Ranma!" she accused. "I-it's not like Ranma would be into that sort of thing, s-so, don't even try it!"

"I-I'm not trying to do anything!" Ryoga shouted.

"Ryoga! What's going on?" Akane shouted from another room, concern in her tone.

Ukyo narrowed her eyes and glared at Ryoga, leaning on the window frame. "What's going on with you and Ranma honey, do you like Ranma?"

Ryoga's emotions where so conflicted that his face contorted into many expressions, his first facial expression was to be angry, but that simmered down to a depressed face, then that face became a confused one. "I-I don't know..." he blushed, clenching his fists as he looked down to the floor. "Maybe we're friends... maybe we're not..."

"Why can't you just give me a straight forward answer?" Ukyo said, his answer not really helping her understand the situation.

"I just don't know what Ranma is to me..." Ryoga confessed. "And now I don't even know what Akane is to me either."

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><p>I know this doesn't seem like much but it should get everyone into the storyline. I'm sorry this has been delayed for so long and it might not be as epic as the beginning of the first story, but, I'd like to know that everyone trusts me when I say that the story will get better. It isn't too long, it's about as long as the first chapter of Ranma's Boyfriend, if the chapter goes well and I see that sequel will do as well as the first. I can continue this with much needed ease.<p>

Some people you're probably wondering about... Happosai and Nabiki will be have some scenes in the next chapter and so will Kuno and Shampoo. This chapter is just a starter, to get everyone into it.

I hope this one turns out as well as the original. Though know that if the support is good, I will be more motivated into writing more chapters for this sequel.

This chapter goes out to everyone who has ever read anything from or reviewed, author alerted, story alerted, favorited any of my stories. I don't intend to be a review whore and I hope you will all forgive me for my rash and stupid crying. This is the last crying I will do for reviewing.

Foxes from the foxxy~

Daisukifox~


	2. Chapter 2

What to say? Well, depending on feedback I might keep this story on the regular track or end it in two more chapters... I don't wanna' get my hopes up for this fic too much.

And if I do... I'll have fun with writing two more chapters and calling it a story. I honestly don't wanna' sound mean, because as I've said to everyone before... I'm kinda' a review whore. ***rubbed back of head***

You'll either love me or hate me at this point and I can tell this by saying this... people are gonna' be kinda' pissed off at me. But hey! You guys will still get at least get two more chapters, if this all goes wrong! ^^

_Oh and my B-day is in 2 more days from now! So, if you feel that I'm not too horrible for what I've written in this AU note, tell me 'HAPPY BIRTHDAY!' :)_

_Oh and the name has been changed to Ryoga's Boyfriend, in order to match with Ranma's Boyfriend.  
><em>

Anywho... DaisukiFox productions would like to present. Ryoga's Boyfriend Ch2.

Disclaimer: I don't own Ranma ½!

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><p><strong>Nabiki<strong>

The atmosphere around Nabiki was thick with tension, her nerves racked with how to convince the ancient martial artist. All factors aside she could probably use what she had to her advantage? Could she use these photos to get Ranma and Ryoga together? It would of course be difficult with how persistent Happosai seemed to be when it involved the female body... sadly her female body was at stake here.

That brought something to her attention, why hadn't Happosai been searching for her and forcing her into the agreement they made. Why did this arouse suspicion from her? Why didn't she just leave it as that and hope she could at least get the rest of the day to herself? Why wasn't she taking the time to find some sort of loop hole in the deal they made? "Maybe I should have made a huge contract where I can have it leave a loop hole open..." Nabiki said, crossing her arms.

Maybe it was best if she just stayed in her room; normal clothes intact. Though she wondered what could he possibly be doing now? Was stealing underwear so important that you wouldn't want a model to actually wear it for you?

"For some reason I'm getting a sense of dread..." Nabiki commented, looking out her window while she sat down on her bed.

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><p><strong>Genma, Soun &amp; Happosai<strong>

"Are you sure this has pretty ladies, fellers?" Happosai asked, while the Poke'mon opening theme song began. He was honestly surprised that he had done this instead of going with Nabiki and preparing or stealing some lingerie for Nabiki to wear as his model.

"Of course, master!" Soun assured him, pulling something out of a bag. "Do you mind if me and Genma prepare something, such as snacks for our viewing pleasure?" Soun recommended, clapping his hands together; almost as if he had other intentions.

"Yes! Prepare!" Genma's sign said as he held his sign. The large panda's eyes gave out the same feeling as Soun's.

"Uh... sure boys, get wha'cha need, I'm gonna' try and make heads or tails out of whatever this thing is..." Happosai replied, staring at the screen of the TV room's television. Though as the them song finished, it instantly came to a commercial, which only served to annoy Happosai as he wanted to get through this show as quickly as possible, also to figure out what all the hype was about.

It was about that moment that Kasumi happened to wonder into the room before Genma and Soun were able to leave, perplexed as to why Genma and Soun weren't completely and utterly intoxicated from the sake they were supposed to have bought. "Excuse me father... but weren't you going to buy yourself some sake?" The eldest sister asked.

Soun looked to his side and rubbed the back of his head, Genma did well to mimic his actions. "Well... you see my dear Kasumi, Genma and I were going to, but, we found ourselves with less yen than by the time we exited the store."

"Not to mention that line up of kids in our way!" Genma's sign said, as he crossed his panda arms; with the sign tucked between his furry arms.

Kasumi felt an anime sweat drop come from her head; they had spent too much money on Poke'mon merchandise. _'I suppose it's a healthier habit than father's sake problem...' _Kasumi thought. Then she watched as Genma and Soun went off to their rooms.

Happosai had been staring into the screen the entire time, ignoring everyone else around him. His attention seemed to fade in and out as the story continued, since, Ash wasn't the most appealing character in the Poke'mon series.

Kasumi noticed that Happosai was the only occupant in the room now, watching the series that Soun and Genma had come to love. She chuckled lightly before exiting the TV room. It would be nice to have Happosai focused on something other than woman's underwear. Now maybe she wouldn't have to constantly keep going to the store to buy some more undergarments.

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><p><strong>Kuno <strong>

The former master mind that sought to take Ranma's heart was now reduced to a man who had been subtly questioning his own motives. His own life and it's views, especially the views on Shampoo. The more and more thought he gave it, she wasn't as bad as he made her out to be, before...

Her accent was sort of cute to him and her cat form was certainly something cute too. As he further contemplated his thoughts on her, he failed to notice that Sasuke(Not from Naruto; but pretty close) was now in the room and watching his master think.

"Master Kuno... you should rest now... you haven't yet recovered from your attack," Sasuke stated, hoping his master would be alright. His master may have been cheap and uncaring for his servants or servants slash ninjas, but that didn't mean he was as uncaring as Kuno and Kodachi seemed to be.

The brown haired kendo master stared at Sasuke, before narrowing his eyes and glaring at him. "I shall rest as soon as I am willing!" he proclaimed, gritting his teeth.

"S-sorry, sir!" Sasuke replied, running out of the room and preparing to do some serious house work.

He felt there was no reason for him to lash out at Sasuke, but, who else could he take his feelings out? His pigtailed girl made out with his rival in love and now he was having mixed feelings about a girl with a bad Japanese accent. _"I Tatewaki Kuno have failed to gain the affections of my pigtailed girl... I The Blue Thunder Of Furinkan High have lost my beloved to some blind fool... I have failed to gain the affection of any fair maiden..." _

To think that he would become this emotionally unstable, well, it shocked Kuno to say the least. He would usually go with actions at this moment, because, to him, they spoke louder than words. Why was someone of a god status; such as him believed himself to be. Had been humanized by the events prior to his self questioning. He had to reinstate his views, if not for the pig tailed girl than for himself, he had to uphold the elegant image he had made for himself. He would challenge the purple haired amazon and claim victory, then, and only then would he see that the fate have only been playing a sick joke on him. Having reached this conclusion the blue thunder placed his hand to his head and smirked; his hand covering one side of his face. Small fits of laughter escaped his throat, satisfied with his world of self delusion, yet again.

At this very second Kuno thought of standing up and shouting to the very heavens. The sheer amount of joy that came from him had him in that good of condition. "I, the great and ever glorious Tatewaki Kuno am never deterred!" Kuno paused and remembered the last time he had been in a situation like this.

"Sasuke, come here!" Kuno demanded.

The ninja hadn't arrived as quickly as Kuno thought he would have, that was until Kuno heard some noise at the top of his ceiling and looked to see that some of the fake ceiling has broken and in came ninja, crashing onto the floor. His eyes swirled in dizziness before he quickly shook his head and knelled in ninja like fashion. "Master!" he said, bowing his eyes with his eyes closed.

"Do something about that entrance Sasuke..." Kuno commented. "I'm in need of an audience... now sit there and cheer the moment I'm to proclaim my subtle, yet, amazing speech..."

Sasuke rose a brow and wondered why his master would need him... and for a reason like that? "Uh... okay, master Kuno."

Kuno smirked and tiled his head upwards, slightly. "I the Blue Thunder of Furinkan High have yet again risen from the ashes of defeat and will now seek to conquer the heart of my beloved Akane Tendo, but, not before I have defeated the beau-" Kuno paused, shaking his head. "T-the knave, Shampoo!"

Sasuke eagerly clapped his hands for his master. "Excellent! Lord Kuno!"

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><p><strong>Ukyo, Ryoga &amp; Akane<strong>

The yellow wearing lost boy was still at a loss and Ukyo's patience was wearing thin. She needed an answer and she wasn't going to stop until she got to the bottom of this, but, she was aware of her current status. When it was compared to the skill of both Ranma and Ryoga, her skills fell under the radar. What could she really do but demand that Ryoga stop what he was doing? And to stop being so confused about someone Ryoga claimed he wanted dead!

She had to remember that Ranma and Akane were in the other rooms, so, she contained herself enough ask him something. "Look... just stop, okay?" she asked, leaning her elbow on the window frame and giving Ryoga her commanding face.

The Lost Boy felt defensive, why? It made no sense to him, but, he acted on this defense. His mind acted on its own accord and had him blurt out what he didn't want to. "I'm not losing the one I care about!"

Ukyo's eyes almost bugged out of her eye sockets. This couldn't be a possibility, but, maybe she misheard; that had to be the case. "W-who are you talking about?" Ukyo asked, knowing that the question had been directed towards Ranma, but, maybe Ryoga had only been joking or misspoke.

Ryoga's natural defenses awoke and shocked some sense into him, "I-I'm talking about Akane!" he exclaimed.

"So, does that mean you're gonna' help me get Ranma honey and I help you get your Akane?" Ukyo smirked. She hoped this would return her partner in the search for love.

Ryoga's internal conflict was apparent on his face the entire time he paused for Ukyo's question. "Thanks, but no thanks... if I do anything, it'll be on my terms."

Ukyo's eyes widened, as this actually the lost boy she knew? This couldn't be right! The one she knew was clumsy, easy to manipulate and most of all... head over heels in love with Akane. "Y-you can't be serious?" Ukyo demanded, shouting almost loud enough for everyone in the house to hear.

"I'm dead serious..." Ryoga responded, in a grave tone.

Unbeknownst to them Akane was eavesdropping near the very end of the conversation. When she had heard Ryoga shout for the first time, she took that as something she had to listen to. Who shouts to the air for no reason? Besides Kuno. Honestly Akane never labeled Ryoga as someone to give speeches to the air, mumbling to himself perhaps but to talk to himself? Not a chance.

All throughout the conversation Akane was able to understand what was going on between Ryoga and Ranma. _'H-how much as happened with Ranma and Ryoga? Is Ranma still under the koi rod? No... I remember, he got it removed... but then why...? Why is Ryoga staying at our place and why is Ranma keeping all these things from me? The jerk should know I'm his fiance!' _Akane thought.

It came clear to her that she was hiding some feelings for the black haired boy. In fact she had always known, for the longest time, she shared a connection with Ranma and for the longest time she had buried her feelings for him but now that her natural course of being with Ranma was threatened, she became scared of losing what had taken her so much time to develop. To top it all of she was riddled with guilt for not being able to figure out that Ryoga was attracted to her, all those times he seemed depressed when Akane would mention them just being friends. It should have been insanely easy to figure out during the time Ryoga was using the perfected ShiShiHoukudan.

The pain she must have caused Ryoga all this time. If only she took the time to view Ryoga as someone a little different, she might have prevented this matured feelings from Ryoga. Now she wasn't sure what to say, should she hate Ryoga? Should she be furious with Ranma? Can she fight for Ranma? What could she do?

The blue haired Tendo leaned her head on the door to Ryoga's room and closed her eyes. She needed to barge in, if only to get rid of Ukyo for the moment. When she heard that Ryoga was going to go on about getting her heart, she knew that there must have been more to that if he was willing to stick around with Ranma.

"Ryoga!" Akane exclaimed, opening the door to the room. "Is someone here?"

Ukyo's eyes widened and the spatula wielding chief jumped away from the window and down onto Ryoga's yard. There was a loud barking followed by and screams of cats that seemed to appear from nowhere. "Damn it!" she screamed as slowly her voice faded.

Akane blinked and turned to the bandanna wearing boy. He was frozen in shock, hoping Akane hadn't heard too much. Akane was well aware of what had gone down, but, she wasn't sure how to approach it and decided to play dumb. "Oh... what was that about, Ryoga?"

Ryoga seemed to relax, regaining his composure. "I-I don't know... she was talking about how she saw me and Ranma with Kuno, I explained to her why we were doing it and she was okay with it," Ryoga replied, hoping she'd buy his story.

Akane knew otherwise of course, but, she didn't want to confront Ryoga, no, not yet. "O-oh... well... Ukyo's kinda' odd."

* * *

><p><strong>Ranma<strong>

The red headed teen had been searching Ryoga's parents room now and still continued to find no money in the closet. She sighed and threw another shoe box over her shoulder. "Where the heck did they leave his money, huh?" Ranma said, then stood up and placed her hands on her hips.

She then figured if she couldn't find the money like a regular person. She needed find money like a Hibiki would... when she realized she didn't have the slightest clue what a Hibiki would think, she considered all her options. "Ryoga's room! Dats gotta' be it! It's the only place we ain't checked too..." Ranma said, slapping her fist into her palm.

Ranma then proceeded by running out of the room; leaving a huge mess in her quake.

When Ranma got to Ryoga's door, she opened it to find that both Akane and Ryoga were in the room. Ranma felt an unease in her chest and gulped, "Uh... what's goin' on?"

"Oh... Ukyo was here, she found out about you two, tricking Kuno into leaving you alone," Akane explained.

Ryoga simply nodded his head. "By the way... I think I found where the money is," Ryoga said.

Ranma's eyes widened, "H-how? Me and Kane' couldn't find it, how can you?" Ranma demanded.

Ryoga glared at Ranma. That was always Ranma's way of thinking, assuming his curse was so bad that he couldn't ever find anything without taking a trip to Osaka. "Because, I can see the stack from here..." Ryoga pointed to underneath his bed.

Ranma stood over where Ryoga was and saw that the stack of yens were neatly set there. "Your parents are weird..."

"That coming from the guy who has a panda for a father," Ryoga countered.

Ranma rose her finger and then brought it down, crossing her arms and pouting a bit. She had no witty comeback for that, she did have a panda for a father half of the time. "Shut it, pig-face."

"Uh... let's just get outta' here," Akane interjected. Her attitude wasn't what it usually was, which caused a bit of an alarm to go off on Ranma. What could be happening inside that blue haired head of hers?

* * *

><p><strong>Happosai<strong>

Contrary to popular belief, the beginning of Poke'mon had an interesting premise; that was until they recycled the plot a million times. Though in this time line in Ranma, it was still the original series first season and therefore still worth viewing, as Master Happosai would comment was well, since he had been watching the entire first season on VHS and staring at the beautiful woman known as simply as Nurse Joy and Officer Jenny. He stared at the screen with love struck eyes, "Wh-whoa!"

"I see you're enjoying the show, master," Soun commented, silently entering the room without being seen by Happosai. A heavy thumping accompanied Soun's footsteps, obviously the only one who could weigh enough to make such footsteps was Genma in Panda form.

The grand master turned around and grinned with a smile too large for his elderly face. "You bet'cha bo-" Happosai stopped short in order to stare in surprise at what he was seeing.

Soun was currently dressed as the boy that followed Ash in Poke'mon, Brock. If that wouldn't have been enough to give Happosai a heart attack... or rather throw him into a laughing fit. Genma was the man for the job, because he was painted in the same fur pattern as Poke'mon famous electric rodent poke'mon, Pikachu. Glued onto his tail was a crudely made, cardboard cutout of Pikachu's yellow and brown, lightening shaped tail.

The cosplaying panda/father rose up his sign, "Pi-pi-kachu!"

"W-what in the blazes are you two doin'!" Happosai shouted, glaring at his students who were dressed as the two of the main characters in Poke'mon.

"Master, we're simply idolizing our favorite characters! Merely to show our support!" Soun countered. "And besides... cosplaying is also done by women."

Happosai stopped in his tracks and blinked, his eyes sparkling in wonder as he held his hands close to his chest. The idea of seeing a woman in actuality cosplaying as officer Jenny or nurse Joy. "Perhaps I was too judgmental when it came to the idea of this here... err... cosplaying, was it?"

Both Genma and Soun nodded their heads.

A smirk formed on Happosai's face. "How quickly can you get me a cosplay outfit?"

* * *

><p><strong>Ukyo<strong>

This was one of those rare moments were Ukyo was shocked with the words that came from Ryoga's mouth. It just brought her to an awkward situation too, what was she going to do with this information? Should she confront Ranma about it and have him beg her to take him back? Though it seemed that he wouldn't beg to be with her... just wishful thinking on her part. She closed her eyes and gritted her teeth as she was standing out on the streets, trying to organize her next set of actions.

She knew that Ryoga must have been planning something, no one could be that unsure that they'd actually claim not to need someone's help when they had in fact gotten help from someone else before. Any chance that Ryoga could use to get to close Akane would almost be instantly accepted by Ryoga. If that wasn't enough to motivate her to do something, it was because Ryoga wasn't sure about his feelings towards Ranma. Men don't usually have to think about their friendships between other men, they were either friends or enemies, the chances of being both, was highly unlikely, something had to exist

"Never thought I'd need Akane to take Ryoga down..." Ukyo commented, crossing her arms. If anything was worse than losing Ranma to Akane, it was having Ryoga take Ranma. The only problem now was that she'd have to do this some other day, she had to wake up early in the morning and prepare for another busy day and when that busy day was complete she'd set her plan into motion. Even though it bothered her to leave Ryoga close to Ranma.

* * *

><p><strong>Ranma, Ryoga &amp; Akane<strong>

The walk back home was fairly silent, Akane barely making any comments or even acknowledging the fact that she was around Ranma and Ryoga. To Ranma it was nerve wrecking to see her in such a way, because that usually meant she was thinking about things and when Akane thought about things that usually lead to a mallet sending her flying into the sky.

Ryoga for the most part was as timid since they first started walking, that alone was ominous enough for Ranma to be on the alert. When they came home, they all went straight to their rooms; Akane leaving the yen on the kitchen counter.

Each and every second that passed Ranma wasn't sure how to change the atmosphere between her and Ryoga. Ranma insisted that Ryoga stay in her room, because if Ryoga were left to sleep on the roof of the Tendo dojo, he'd probably get lost on the way down, in all honestly Ranma used that line in order to get some sort of argument from Ryoga, but, that argument she had wanted received no argument but rather a shy approval and following without question.

The red headed girl saw that Ryoga was now wearing his pants and a white muscle shirt. His face was expressionless as he placed his sleeping bag on the ground nearest to the corner of the room, away from the center of the room where Ranma and Genma would slumber.

"Y'know... it ain't gonna kill ya' to say something right now," Ranma stated, looking off to the side as she sat on her futon.

Ryoga's eyes were glued to the floor, staring at it as his feelings were still confusing him. He preferred not to say anything, but with someone like Ranma there was probably a chance that she would provoke him enough to say something. He refused to fall for that this time. "I've got nothing to say, Saotome..." Ryoga responded and crossed his eyes, closing his eyes while he sat down with his legs crossed.

"Why's dat?" Ranma asked, having moved over to Ryoga and trying to look at his face by angling her face to look at his.

Ryoga noticed that Ranma's voice sounded a lot closer than when she spoke just a few second ago, so, he opened his eyes and saw that Ranma was dangerously close to his personal space. "Wha!" he screamed before leaning back and blushing slightly.

Ranma found herself blinking, was he really this awkward around woman? "Oh clam down pig-face... I'm not a real girl."

"Don't you think I know that!" Ryoga shouted, raising one of his hands and clenching it. _'Stupid jackass doesn't know that when he does that I can s-see...' _Ryoga thought, placing his hand over his face to try and cover the blush on his face. _'d-down his shirt...'_

It was that sort of response that would trigger Ranma's more mischievous side, messing with Ryoga was certainly one of those few pleasures in life, "Since I'm not a real girl... that means ya' wanna' sleep in my futon?" Ranma asked, clasping her hands together in an adorable fashion.

Ryoga bared his fangs and suppressed his need to attack Ranma right now, what good would it do anyways? He didn't have the motivation he used to have... Akane was his motivation and he didn't have that anymore. "No thanks."

Ranma paused when Ryoga hadn't resorted to violence, his usual trademark response hadn't come. "Huh...?" Ranma uttered, dumbfounded.

The lost boy only responded by opening his sleeping bag and pulling the cover over himself, his back facing Ranma as he tried to force himself to sleep.

Ranma shook her head, all these signs weren't a good thing. What could she say to make him more accepting of the situation? She didn't want to make an actual advancement to Ryoga, because then she felt that maybe she'd be threatening the very fabric of her mind.

This was Ryoga Hibiki and although she had offered to be his fake girlfriend, she knew that she'd never engage in actual romantic actions. Though she was obligated to if Ryoga ever wanted to make an advancement towards her, but she knew that Ryoga was too much of a gentleman to ever do something like that, without Ranma's consent. Did that mean that Ryoga would eventually try to leave? Now that Ranma gave it some thought... Ryoga would probably later on leave when he felt that nothing was really happening. Ranma would be too awkward to provide him with the affection a real lover could provide him with... and it was obvious that Ryoga didn't care much for having Ranma as a friend. _'Hm... maybe I can convince the loaf to hang out, as friends,' _Ranma thought. Even she knew that his friendship would eventually wear thin on Ryoga and he'd go back to his loveless, depressed state. There was only really one idea that came to Ranma, one idea that would be effective enough to keep Ryoga from becoming too depressed and leaving... Ranma would have to become important to him as a girl and then use that to her advantage, when she became precious to him Ryoga would still want to be around her, even as a friend. The idea alone was crazy but it was the only way to make someone like Ryoga to stick around willingly.

Though Ranma found herself pondering why she wanted to go this far for someone, obviously her need for a friend couldn't have been that great, right? She could just hang out with Hiroshi and Daisuke. Of course they had no real understanding of martial arts and were sometimes dull and plain, but wasn't that a good idea? All the things of excitement surrounding Ranma's life involved people like Ukyo, Shampoo, Mousse, Kodachi, Kuno and even Akane. What singled Ryoga out as so important?

Ranma found a blush forming on her face and her eyes widened, she didn't know why but her breath got caught in her throat and a nervous feeling went throughout her body. _'I-I'm thinking too much...'_

* * *

><p><strong>Nabiki<strong>

The following day came and one can assume that it meant two days of worry free forty-eight hours of laziness, action filled training, cooking training, black mailing, shogi playing and Poke'mon related things. Not in Nabiki's case, she was determined to try and get to her friends house and spend sometime there, if only to avoid her deal with Happosai.

The middle sister of the Tendo's poked her head out of her room and scanned the hallway for any signs of the perverted grand master. Fortune seemed to be smiling down on her, because Happosai was nowhere in sight. "Oh good..." Nabiki sighed.

"Nabiki..." Happosai called out to her, appearing from the 'Now you see me! Now you don't!' skill and landing in front of her with a strange nurse outfit and red wig.

Nabiki leaned back with a shocked look on her face. "Look!"

"No butts!" Happosai exclaimed, holding it up with a determined look. "Nurse Joy..."

* * *

><p><strong>Ranma &amp; Ryoga<strong>

The red headed girl felt something odd, she didn't know why but she felt strangely warm, as if something was holding her close and being protective of her. She squinted her eyes in her sleep a bit and opened them slowly to see that Ryoga was holding her in her sleep. Her first thought was that it was Ryoga's fault for the position they were in and was going to comment on it, until she saw that she wasn't even on her futon anymore.

If that wasn't enough to throw her for a loop, Ryoga was also not on his sleeping bag. The red headed girl grunted and tried to pull away from the Lost Boy, but noticed when she tried to move him away, his arms would react and pull her in closer.

"No... no..." Ryoga grunted, bringing Ranma in closer.

Ranma's felt her eye twitch and her mouth hang open in shock, how had this even happened? Then she remembered that Genma would sometimes push Ranma over when he was in his Panda form.

That meant that at night when Genma entered the room he must have tossed and turned to the point where he subconsciously pushed Ranma over to Ryoga and Ryoga in turn must have tossed and turned as well, eventually coming over to Ranma and catching her in his arms.

Ranma groaned and pouted, blowing away a loose strand of hair from her face. She looked up to him once and sighed, figuring that maybe this wasn't so bad... and she slowly drafted back to sleep.

* * *

><p><strong>Kasumi &amp; Akane<strong>

Mornings were often routine for Akane and Kasumi, they'd usually greet each other while Kasumi prepared breakfast and Akane would often watch her, mostly to try and improve her own cooking skills; that always failed for some reason.

Kasumi was stirring the pot while looking over it. She turned to the youngest sister and smiled lightly. "Akane... could you do me a favor and run to the corner store? I need a few things... it shouldn't take too long for breakfast to be ready and I promise you it won't be too long."

Akane was sitting on the table in the kitchen with her chin in her hands and her face dull and expressionless. "Uh... sure, Kasumi." she stood up and waited for Kasumi to provide her with the yen she'd need and the list of ingredients she'd need.

Once that was done Akane was on her way to the corner store, all while she seemed to be thinking about the situation between Ranma and Ryoga. There was too much to consider... should she confront Ranma and Ryoga and demand that Ryoga keep his hands off of her fiance? Then give Ranma a mallet and ask him to accept their future together? Was it even in her to do something like that? The blue haired girl didn't want to be labeled as insane, like the other weirdos that followed Ranma.

"Akane!" Ukyo shouted, stopping in front of the blue haired girl and panting.

"Ukyo?" Akane blinked.

"I have a proposition for you, Akane..." the chef said.

* * *

><p>Okay... sorry this is still not as long as the previous chapters. I didn't wanna' give away too much.<p>

Next chapter will have Ukyo and Akane's plan. And it'll have a fight between Shampoo and Kuno again! Not to mention Nabiki will suffer... but she'll be hot when she does so! lol

Excuse the lack of editor for this chapter, I wanted to post just a few days before my B-day and I'm not gonna' wait for Fuyukazehime to show up in the next year to edit this chapter.

Please Review

Foxes from the Foxxy~

DaisukiFox~


	3. Chapter 3

One thing I'd like to say, please don't give me a hard time about the KunoXShampoo pairing. If you don't like it then you don't like the idea Materia-Blade gave me, that's right. He gave me the idea when he was helping me with a chapter for Ranma's Boyfriend. And I took that challenge and I love it, if your still reading my fics M-blade. Thank you for the idea!

Sorry if the wait was murder! I hope it lives up to hype!

Also each chapter will stay at the 5,000 words mark. The name of this fic has been changed back to Ryoga's Girlfriend because everyone liked it better. lol

Disclaimer: I don't own Ranma ½.

* * *

><p>It took Nabiki a few seconds to figure out that she hadn't made a written contract with Happosai and it was open to debate on whether she had to play Nurse Joy. She should have taken this into consideration much earlier on than she had now, it was almost too much of an amateur's move.<p>

"Calm down, big boy." Nabiki said, crossing her arms and taking a business like look.

The impatient look on Happosai only increased, was she trying to weasel herself out of their agreement? This surely wouldn't stand! He had gotten her the costume and everything, her backing out couldn't be accepted. "Looky here, missy!" Happosai exclaimed, pointing his finger at the middle Tendo sister.

"A deals a deal!"

"Of course..." Nabiki smirked. "but I have to ask... when did I ever say that I would be the model?"

Happosai response was going to be swift, that was until it dawned on him... she hadn't ever said that she was going to be his model. It came out as implied all the time and with how the girl had been acting, he thought she was going to be the model too. He stared at the floor for a moment before softening his gaze and making his eyes tear up. Now that he thought about it, she had also never mentioned a time for his model to appear, for all he knew Happosai could be stuck staring at an unattractive woman for his model.

"Wha!" Happosai cried, falling on his belly and crying like a child. "Your so mean to me! And I actually helped you out!" the master continued to cry while beating the floor with his hands.

Nabiki chuckled to herself as she leaned down and patted the head of the grand master, "There, there... I'm going to keep my promise, I am a business woman after all."

Happosai's tear stained eyes stared at Nabiki for a moment before responding. "S-she's not gonna' be ugly?" he whined, hope returning in his eyes.

"No... infact she'll be a real looker, like the most perfect eye candy for an old pervert like you," Nabiki said, taking her hand off of his head, "and do you know what's the best part of all this?"

Happosai shook his head, wiping away his tears.

"She's lives here... in this very house," Nabiki stated.

The mountain of ideas that flew through Happosai's mind were far too graphic for narration. And those thoughts involved all three of the women in the house, not excluding Ranma's female side of course. "I-I always said you were the brightest of your sisters..."

"And you'd be right about that..." Nabiki said, closing her eyes and crossing her arms. She was honestly surprised that this idea had taken such a large amount of time to come her. Perhaps its all the drama that was happening that caused this, _'Now it's time to use that drama to my advantage...'_

* * *

><p><strong>Ranma &amp; Ryoga<strong>

Warm... and soft was the best way to describe what Ryoga felt, and perhaps maybe... cushiony? An almost tender feeling going throughout his body as he slept. It was at this point that Ryoga was entering the realm of conscious thought. His dreams had been nothing but the usual dark abysmal ones he constantly had when he was feeling down.

Although this sensation he was feeling now was more than enough to counter that dream.

Ryoga inhaled deeply with his nose and exhaled through his mouth. The scent that went through his nostrils were a mixture of sweat, octopus puffs, ramen, okonomiyaki and was there a hint of... swimming pool, chlorine? This faint aroma was somewhat pleasant. It reminded him of someone... but who could be a combination of all these things? And as his thoughts kept coming through, he realized that he was holding someone.

"Ah!" Ryoga screamed, moving away from the pig tailed girl he had been previously holding.

Ranma squinted her eyes shut before yawning and rubbing the sleep out of her eyes. She stretched her body right after sitting up "What's up with you?"

"What's up with me?" Ryoga demanded, glaring. "Why the hell where you in my arms, you sicko!"

Ranma slowly locked eyes with Ryoga, glaring as well. "For your information... you're the one who grabbed me," Ranma stated.

Ryoga took a second to consider what Ranma said and remembered that he had been the one to be holding Ranma, it would just be awkward for someone to make a person hold you at night. "Why didn't you stop me?" Ryoga asked, raising a brow.

"Because we had a deal... you stay and I'm your stupid fake girlfriend, dat's why..." Ranma replied, standing on her own two feet before going to her closet and getting herself a towel.

Ryoga narrowed his eyes, that just didn't seem creditable enough to allow someone to hold another person like that. "You can't be okay with that, can you?" Ryoga demanded.

"Of course I'm not!' Ranma shouted, slamming the door to the closest. "but I did give you my word! And if you wanna' be some pervert who spoons me, then whatever!" Ranma fired back.

To say that Ryoga was surprised would have been the understatement of a century. _'And here I thought Saotome didn't have an honor bound bone in his body,' _Ryoga thought as he timidly stared down at the floor in front of him.

"I'm outta' here..." Ranma huffed, opening the door and leaving to get herself cleaned. _'Stupid bacon breath, reminding me of what I gotta' do for em', he's got some nerve!' _Ranma thought as she exited the room.

Ryoga noticed the towel draped on Ranma's shoulder and decided that asking where she was going was obvious to ask. The fang toothed boy went over to his backpack and retrieved a new yellow training shirt and proceeded by changing into his old wardrobe.

* * *

><p><strong>Ranma<strong>

A warm moist of steam surrounded the tube Ranma sat in. After everything that occurred he just needed sometime to be his actual self; his actual male self. His nerves were severely tense from the past few days and he just needed sometime to himself.

Ranma closed his eyes, letting his muscles relax into the steamy healing powers of hot water. _'Man... I can see why all dose people fall asleep in these things... it's great...' Ranma thought. _His breathing became calm while bathing in the moisture filled air.

From there his thoughts drifted back to the past few days that everything between him and Ryoga happened. From Ranma running away from Kuno and then formulating his plan to use Ryoga as a fake boyfriend, right down to the promise they made. Ranma clenched his eyes shut when thinking of this, he noticed that his breath didn't get caught his throat. He wondered why... if he had thought about it before he was sure he'd feel extremely uneasy. _'Maybe it has to do with the differences in my girl side and junk... cause' I coulda sworn this would bother me,' _Ranma figured that thinking about all these things had been too frequent of a thing now.

All that he could really analyze was that he wanted a friend, even if that was worth becoming someone's fake girlfriend, he then opened his eyes and critically thought about that. Even in his own mind that didn't make too much sense to him, why was he going this far? And why wasn't he treating all those kissing moments with Ryoga like the black plague? Just a little while ago he would have tried to tear Ryoga into a thousand pieces if he tried kissing him; whether in girl form or not. One time should have been enough to call his false relationship enough, in fact, why didn't he just heavily insist on his false feelings for Ryoga to Kuno?

The pig tailed martial artist reached his hand over to his head and began scratching it lightly, truly perplexed as to how he felt about Ryoga. _'Okay Ranma... ya' hafta' figure out what pig-brain means ta' ya'...' _Ranma thought with a low groan. _'I took his bread when we were in middle school and dat was it... but what he really wants to fight me fer is Kane', right? That's what he always blabbers on bout'... but he ain't doin' that much anymore... wait... this is supposed be about what I think of him! Okay, focus Saotome...I always kinda' didn't like him cause' he wanted to show off to Akane, but he's also helped me get stronger from time to time and we kinda' admitted to being rivals. That was kinda' alright...' _Ranma paused from his thoughts when something came back to him. The events of the koi rod incident.

All his attempts at making Ryoga love him and proclaiming him as HIS property. _'Damn it! I thought I suppressed those!' _he shouted in his head, running both of his hands through his head and trying to ease his troubled mind.

"I'm done!" Ranma exclaimed, reaching for a nearby towel and getting himself ready for the day. "I ain't goin' back to dose memories, no way..." Ranma stated, going over to the small pile of clothing he left for himself to change into.

Ranma emerged from the bathroom; now dressed in his boxer shorts and muscle shirt.

"Ranma... its really nice to see you," Nabiki greeted, with a coy smile; that was her usual business face.

And from behind Nabiki's leg, the grand master Happosai poked his head out, "Or should I say... Misty..." Happosai chuckled, placing his hands on his cheeks and laughing manically.

"Saotome... we're doomed..." Ryoga stated, making his presence known as well. The fang toothed boy crossed his arms and tried to conceal his face with the hat on his face. He was adorned in the traditional clothing of Ash Ketchum from the original series.

* * *

><p><strong>Kuno<strong>

Extravagant was the word Kuno would refer to himself as and even then he felt that the word was rather lacking in his opinion. Thus was the world he lived in lacking, even the simple cement paved roads of Nerima were not humble enough to have him trend on them, they too were lacking in the grace and elegance that Kuno oozed out.

And that simple women Shampoo would learn not to underestimate him. She too would learn the might of the Blue Thunder of Furinkan High. The deranged Shakespearean noblemen dramatically held the side of his face, snickering with a snide air to him. "This Shampoo character will truly know pain to the very depths of her being... nay... she'll become the very meaning of the word. To believe it has come to the point of me relinquishing my chivalrous ways, tis the life of one so grand to make such sacrifices."

There wasn't much distance between him and the Nekohaten and yet, a ping of worry came from the almost bottomless sea of confidence Kuno had. Shampoo wasn't all that bad, when she wasn't defending something. _'N-no... that kind woman doesn't exist, she was merely a facade, in order for me to wed that unworthy woman and I SHALL not fall for such manners of trickery! Not again!' _Kuno thought to him, shaking his head once as he saw that he was but twenty feet away from the Nekohaten.

"You are quite predictable... if somewhat daring," Cologne stated, sitting on a cement fence across from the Nekohaten. "I suppose that shows some amount of potential."

Kuno drew his blade, ready for any sneak attack. "I have not come to challenge thee-"

"I'm not your opponent, boy, she is..." Cologne replied, pointing her cane to the top of the Nekohaten. From atop the roof stood Shampoo, standing at the very edge of the building.

Tatewaki Kuno's eyes widened when he saw that she was at the edge of the building's roof. It brought some worry into him, "You needn't end your life!"

Cologne raised a brow and stared Kuno for a second, "What are you on about?" Cologne asked.

He was about to reply and talk some sense into Cologne but then noticed that Shampoo jumped from the roof. Her action alone set Kuno's heart a flare with panic. At least that was until she landed, completely unharmed.

Shampoo narrowed her eyes, dangerous intent driving her actions. Her focus was now more keen than ever, this time because she was aware of her goal and driven by anger. There was no Ranma to district her or cause her to fumble, this would be simple.

Cologne cackled and shook her head, "My, my... it seems that you have grown quite fond of my great grand daughter and here I thought she meant nothing to you," Cologne added.

"S-silence!" Kuno glared, then returned his attention to the purple haired amazon girl.

"You are aware of the conditions of this fight, correct?" Cologne asked.

"Of course... am I to lose, I shall try to become the husband of this barbaric woman," Kuno replied.

Shampoo bared her teeth, annoyed that he would refer to her as "Barbaric", she only did what she thought was best. Even of that meant looking like a brute, she would perform her task. Also she thought he meant the way she spoke too, it wasn't her fault she wasn't learning Japanese as quickly as she wanted, she was from another country after all.

"Shampoo show you barbaric." Shampoo stated, taking a mantis pose; while her eyes said that she had a firm determination.

"Hm..." Cologne groaned, unsure about this fight. She was of course sure that Shampoo could win this fight fairly easy. Though would Shampoo go too far with this fight? Her emotions could possible prove to be troublesome for her honor.

"Begin the fight!" Cologne shouted, jolting her cane out in front of her, signaling the start of the battle.

The blue thunder used his traditional kendo stance and held his blade out in front o him. "Have at thee!" Kuno shouted, raising his sword over his head and bringing it down for a slice.

Shampoo evaded to the side and pulled her leg back, hitting the side of Kuno's waist and making him fumble, until he got his bearings. Shampoo held her leg in the kicked position before bringing her leg back down to the ground, her face displaying how serious she was about this situation.

Kuno found ignoring the numb pain in his waist to be a rather difficult task, kneeling, he tightened his fists on his bokken handle. "Argh..."

"Get up, Shampoo no is finished with you..."

"Neither am I!"

The blundering bokken user attempted a different method of getting his target, he'd use rapid stab motions to try back her into a corner; that had worked once before on Ranma, it should easily take Shampoo down. He was sadly greeted with her evading everyone of his strikes, almost as if she was toying with him.

Shampoo's eyes went wide when she saw an opening. She grabbed the stab that she dodged and used her other hand to send Kuno flying back and straight into a cement wall. She squeezed the piece of the bokken she broke off and stared at Kuno.

Such pain could only be endured by those who have had the proper training. Thanks to Akane and Ranma's constant beatings Kuno was able to survive being sent through a cement wall.

Shampoo strolled over to the hole in the fence, her fierce expression not once fading from view. She wanted answers and she wanted them now, she had done what she wanted but now was the time to hear his reason for making her feel so bad. Even after he had promised to control himself, "Shampoo say..." the purple haired girl dropped the piece of Kuno's bokken and reached down in the hole, grabbing Kuno by his kendo uniform's collar. "I no is done with you!"

He felt as if every bone in his body had taken ten hits by Akane's mallet technique; even then that might have felt better than what Kuno was experiencing right now. It was as far worse now that Shampoo was holding him up by his collar and elevating him above her. It took everything inside Kuno to look at the face of the powerful woman warrior that defeated him. _'Have I really been underestimating her? Or has she merely been hiding this strength?' _Kuno thought.

"W-what?" Kuno retorted.

"Why you laugh at Shampoo?" she demanded, shaking him; erupting a groan of pain from the kendo leader. The nerve of this man to have laughed at her and at the point where she was showing signs of actually considering him someone she could talk to.

"I did no such thing!" Kuno shot back, gritting his teeth and squinting one eye shut. "I-I was laughing for a different purpose!"

Shampoo raised a brow but decided to actually hear him out this time, instead of thrashing him to death. "Explain to Shampoo!" she said, shaking him again.

"Ah! I was laughing at the idea of Saotome being chased by your feline curse!"

It was then that Kuno felt gravity take hold of him, as Shampoo had dropped him to the floor. The stunning resolution that came to her was shocking, all because she misunderstood his reason for laughing.

"Ah!" Kuno screamed, his nerves sending painful signals to his body.

Shampoo's eyes widened before she closed her eyes, kneeling down and taking Kuno into a warm embrace, cradling his head in her chest. "Shampoo is too, too sorry!" she stated, leaning her head on his.

Somewhere within Kuno pushed past his disillusioned mind and awoke the half of him which had tried to get to know Shampoo. He blushed ever so lightly as it seemed that the girl he had briefly gotten to know was actually showing him concern. The feeling was unfamiliar to him; since Akane, nor Ranma have ever treated him in such a way.

Cologne smiled ever so softly, "Perhaps we can shatter that made up world of yours, boy..."

Shampoo realized that maybe she was coming off as too caring but those thoughts faded when she pulled back and saw the tender look on Kuno's face. Shampoo, although she wouldn't say it out loud, she found him extremely attractive at this moment.

"S-Shampoo treat wounds..." she said, a timid expression crossing her face as she averted her eyes from him. "Is okay?"

The only response she received was a nod of Kuno's head.

* * *

><p><strong>Tendo Living room<strong>

Genma and Soun were the at the apathy of Poke'mon fans. They played the card game, the hand held game that came out on Gameboy and even bought the VHS cassettes and went as far as pre-ordering tickets to 'Poke'mon The First Movie'. And then they heard that they were going to be treated to something special, from what they understood it was probably Poke'mon related, since Happosai had recently become a fan of the insanely popular series(for this time period).

Now Genma and Soun were seated on their cushions and waiting for their master. Soun dressed as Brock and Genma dressed as a giant Pikachu, this time with a finely made Pikachu tail.

The doors to the room flew open and out came Happosai, carrying a tray of various snacks he had Kasumi prepare. "Your daughter is such a nice girl, Soun m'boy..." Happosai said, placing the tray in front of the two other men.

"I'm aware... but why have you called us here, master?" Soun asked.

"Yeah, what gives?" Genma's sign asked.

"Boys... for showing me the wonder of Poke'mon, I'm treating ya' to somethin' special."

"Poke'mon cards?" Genma's sign asked, his panda face showing interest.

Happosai stared at Genma before slapping his hand on his knee and laughing, "N-no! Even better!" that was when Kasumi entered the room and held out her hand, dressed as the infamous Nurse Joy. Although she didn't seem bothered in the least to wear what she was wearing; since her outfit wasn't revealing, more adorable really.

"Welcome to the Poke'mon center, today we're treating you with entertainment!" Kasumi said, moving to the side.

Happosai's cheeks began to flare as he saw that perhaps Kasumi did give off that image of a perfect Nurse Joy; considering the fact that she even got her hair done like Nurse Joy was a bonus; in Happosai's book.

Genma and Soun were just stunned at how convincing she looked, this was certainly going to be a treat.

It was then that Ranma and Ryoga entered the room, Ryoga still dressed as the main character of the original Poke'mon series, Ash Ketchum. Ranma entered the room in her girl form, dressed in blue jean short shorts and connected to those were red suspenders connected to a small yellow tank top.

"This is so damn humiliating..."

"Not to mention that weird hairstyle she made you get..." Ryoga commented.

Genma was shocked to see how much Ranma's girl form could look when compared to Misty, but there was still some differences between them that was for sure.

Soun was rather amazed at how well Ryoga gave off the image of Ash Ketchum, although Ryoga's hair remained the same, he was still shocked to see that Ryoga was even close to mimicking Ash.

Happosai wanted to stare at Ranma some more but remembered that there was a scene that was supposed to unfold. "Get on with it!" Happosai commanded.

"Hell no!" Ryoga shouted, throwing out his arm and clenching his fist.

"You'd better..." Nabiki said, standing behind the two martial artists. "I have evidence here of you two willingly kissing and I'm not afraid to use it, so... make with the acting or make with getting new identities, your choice."

Ranma and Ryoga both gritted their teeth in frustration; their faces becoming as red as cherries.

"I'm guessing you did read those scripts I gave you," Nabiki giggled with closed eyes. "So I take it this won't be all too hard, now will it?"

Ryoga was the first to shift his direction, only he wasn't shifting away from everyone; he was shifting to face Ranma. Still as red as a tomato, the lost boy clenched his fists and lowered his head down to the floor, suddenly finding it interesting.

Ranma followed his actions, her face accompanied by a scowl. "Oh, Ash..." Ranma said, furrowing her brow as she pretended to scratch the side of her arm in an adorable fashion, since the script commanded her to do so. "There's something I have to tell you..." Ranma said, not really placing her acting skills to the test.

Nabiki noticed that Happosai wasn't all too pleased, he in fact looked infuriated with how little passion these two were giving. "Hey! Actually try to act this out or I'll start shouting that I have these photos and find a way to make a clip show outta' it!"

That brought the acting skills of Ranma and Ryoga to the light, making them shine brighter than they ever thought they could. Thanks to the Nerima's fundamental tool of persuasive threatening.

Ranma's back straightened as chills went down her spine, slapping herself quickly she shook her head and closed her eyes. Taking a deep breath she placed her hand on her other arm's elbow before looking down the ground and gently opening her eyes. "Ash, there's something I gotta' tell you..."

Ryoga's spine sent chills down his as well, but he also attempted to actually play this scene out right. "Uh... what's up, Misty?" Ryoga asked, seeming completely clueless when it comes to matters of affection; much like the real Ash.

Ranma blushed and gazed into Ryoga's eyes, "Ya' know how we've been everywhere together, right?"

Ash or rather Ryoga dressed as Ash blushed but ultimately decided that he had to remain clueless for cannon reasons, "Uh yeah... it's cause you still want me to get you a new bike, right?"

"Well, did you ever think we could be more than, y'know... just friends?" Misty/Ranma asked.

Ryoga blushed deeply but had to remain in character, but was he honestly at fault? A beautiful red headed girl wearing skimpy clothing was asking him to be more than just friends. "You mean like, best friends?" Ryoga asked, feeling a bit stupid. Though that's what the script said and so he would follow, or else.

"We're already best friends, just like Brock is!" Ryoga grinned as best as he could.

"No! Don't you get it! I like you more than just a friend or a best friend you little twerp!" Ranma exclaimed, stomping her foot. "I wanna' be your girlfriend, Ash!"

Ryoga refused the urge to grab Ranma in an embrace _'Ran-Ranma's done this before, hasn't he?' _Ryoga thought. "Misty..."

"Look ASH KETCHUM! I know you just think I'm some stupid girl following you around because you owe me something! But that's not all I am, I'm your friend and someone who really cares about you!" Ranma exclaimed, going as far as adding fake tears in her declaration.

Ryoga gulped before he saw that Ranma lowered her head; as the script commanded. He squinted his eyes shut before moving over to the red headed Poke'mon trainer/a martial artist and brought her into a warm embrace; leaning his head down on her as she placed her hands on his chest and leaned herself into his chest.

Ryoga exhaled his held in breathe and sighed contently, a feeling he never thought he'd feel with Ranma.

Genma and Happosai were frantically trying to keep themselves from crying but as the feelings in their hearts swelled, Happosai hugged Genma and cried. "Whatta' beautiful performance!"

Genma cried as well; in panda form. Whereas Soun crossed his arms with a skeptical look on his face. "I don't believe this to be accurate, everyone knows that Misty is attracted to Brock, this makes absolutely no sense!"

Happosai's in the strangest thing ever done by him, did a complete one hundred and eighty degree turn before landing square on Soun. "What!" Happosai shouted, "Of course Misty loves Ash!"

"That's nonsense and you know it, master!" Soun shouted.

Nabiki tilted her head, why hadn't Ranma and Ryoga moved away from each other now? Happosai and co clearly wasn't playing attention anymore. Her eyes widened before she realized that maybe this event had triggered something between Ranma and Ryoga, _'And here I thought this would only make things more difficult' _she chuckled _'who knows, maybe I oughtta' be a matchmaker too.' _Nabiki thought.

"Hey Romeo and Juliet, you can stop holding each other now," Nabiki advised.

A took an entire three seconds for Ranma's and Ryoga defense mechanisms to kick in and protect them from humiliation, both jumped away from one another, avoiding eye contact.

"I'm outta' here..." Ranma stated, speed walking out of the room.

"Me too..." Ryoga stated, "I'm getting outta' these clothes..."

"I'm there wit ya' on that," Ranma said.

"Try not to have too much fun, you two," Nabiki added.

Ranma and Ryoga both shot nasty glares at Nabiki. "Shut it!" they shouted in unison, going up the stairs.

Kasumi was at the corner of the room and even she had to admit, the scene was lovely. Of course she wouldn't expect any less from Ranma and Ryoga. "Bravo! I enjoyed that very much!"

Nabiki entered the room and placed her hand on her chin, maybe this could be another way for her to make some money. All she had to do was get Dr. Tofu to wanna' play a part; he of course would have to pay for it.

"Say... Kasumi, do you wanna' be in one of these little plays, would you?" Nabiki asked, already scheming.

* * *

><p><strong>Ranma &amp; Ryoga<strong>

There was a awkward feeling in the air, tension so high up you could drown in it. The silence was the worst since neither wanted to talk, since their recent performance went well, perhaps too well.

Ranma's stare was intense the entire time, even when removing her suspenders and yellow tank top. Even though Ryoga's back was turned to hers. She became paranoid and wondered if he would peep at her. Although there was no reason for him to do so, due to the fact that Ranma wore her male boxers and could quickly put on a white muscle shirt with use her chestnut fist.

"That was weird..." Ryoga commented, staring down at the floor as he adorned his white beater.

Ranma was thankfully able to get her beater on as well. Though she had used her chestnut fist to speed through the process. "Yeah, ya' didn't have to hold like that either..." Ranma added.

The lost boy blinked from Ranma's response, "Y-you didn't have to look like you were crying, either..." Ryoga replied, some venom in his tone.

"It's called acting... something you wouldn't know any about," Ranma shot back, if she couldn't fight him her. She'd beat him with her words.

"Your right, I ain't too good at being a fake, like you," Ryoga countered. Now looking over his shoulder and baring his fangs.

"Look who's talkin', P-chan!" Ranma shouted, completely turned around and staring Ryoga down. The two stepped forth until they were standing in front of one another, scowls on their faces.

"Why don't you stop this..." Ryoga said.

"Stop what, bacon breath?" Ranma asked.

"Stop messing around with me, if you're keeping me around just so you think being my friend will keep me from being with Akane, then you've got another thing coming, because here's a news flash Saotome..." Ryoga glared.

"What are you on about?" Ranma asked, confused as to how they got onto the subject of making Ryoga stick around and the whole concept of Akane for that fact.

"I don't want Akane anymore!" Ryoga declared.

It was then that Akane opened the door to the, having come in at the wrong moment. "Ryoga?"

* * *

><p>There! I'm exhausted! That was super tough... and don't worry, the next chapter will have what happened between Akane and Ukyo.<p>

And it comes to my attention that some people really don't like the ShampooXKuno thing, but ya' know what? I like it and if you're going to complain about it, please save your breath. Remember, this is my story and in this they're getting scenes.

Without Kuno(As much as everyone complains about him) has actually a lot of credit owed to him. Think about it! Without him I would have never come out with this idea! I love Kuno and his goofy ways!

So, that's what I have to say. I'm a Kuno fan, so, don't give me any problems with that.

Now to those who like all these pairings I've been doing, thank you. Does anyone think I could write a ShampooXKuno fic?

Lol

_Foxes from the Foxxy~_

_DaisukiFox~_


	4. Chapter 4

I was going to post a new chapter for Ranma's Pig Problems... but I find that I'm having an extreme case of writer's block for that one. This one? It's kinda' the same, since I'm trying my best to get this story back on course.

Anywho! If you're interested in RanmaXRyoga goodness then I suggest you check out mine and Dr. Facer's joint story... "The Angel with No Memory". I can't say much about it, but! I highly recommend you check that story out and leave a review if you'd be so gracious! X3

Disclaimer: I DaisukiFox do not own Ranma ½, people would find me too whiny to tolerate.

* * *

><p>Akane quirked a brow when confronted by the chief, she had no idea what Ukyo could have up her sleeve. "Whatever it is...no," Akane replied, not interested in the least to hear Ukyo out.<p>

Ukyo glared and stared at the ground below her; her breathing deep as she was still trying to catch her breath. For Ukyo it felt as though time was slowing down for her and Akane, Akane's steps looked as though they were being poured out like maple. She even had to admit that saying what she was about to say was going to make her choke.

"Akane... Ryoga is falling for Ranma," Ukyo said as her back was now facing Akane's back.

There were many occasions in which Akane would find herself at a loss but this was a step further than the rest. During all her time in Nerima Akane found the weird and insane to be an average part of her life, a natural chaos that ascended the norm of an average Japanese school girl's life. Though this topped the charts now, it was more lacking in any sense than Shampoo being able to turn into a cat, Kuno's delusional thoughts, Happosai's obsession with panties and bras, Ukyo's over-sized spatula and reason for dressing like a man, Mousse's strange love interest in a girl like Shampoo, Dr. Tofu's odd behavior around Kasumi, Genma and Soun's love of Poke'mon and sake drinking and last but not least all the other colorful characters that haunted the streets of Nerima.

Doing an about face faster than a military solider Akane addressed this in the best way she knew how. "Don't mess with me Ukyo, I'm not in the mood!" she shouted, stomping her foot down and turning around.

Ukyo looked over her shoulder and offered the following rebuttal. "Ranma talked about him and Ryoga making out..."

Akane felt the power to move escape her, the overwhelming torrent of feelings clashing against others inside of Akane were too difficult for even her to describe. Akane appeared to be staring out in front of her, much like a deer caught staring at headlights. The idea of Ranma pressing his lips to those of Ryoga, it made her blood boil. "They did it to get rid of Kuno..." Akane argued, rather weakly.

"And how long did that take?" Ukyo questioned, now facing Akane.

Akane felt as though she was swallowing sand at this point. She lowered her head and contemplated the thoughts Ukyo was entering in her head. All this time she buried any possible idea of Ranma falling for someone other than her and here she hoped that she'd have some more time before figure out any sort of strategy.

Ukyo met nothing but silence and she knew that she must have struck a sensitive topic for the Tendo girl. She promised to herself that she would never tell Akane about Ryoga's crush on the blue haired Tendo but maybe it was just the thing she needed to reach Akane, because of neither did anything about Ranma and Ryoga's budding relationship then that meant that none of Ranma's fiance would be the victor of their long held quarrel. "Akane... Ryoga... for the longest time, has wanted to date you and I would help him as long as it would include me getting a date with Ranma-honey."

Akane released a deep breath and nodded her head, "I know..."

Ukyo's eyes widened and she almost felt the need to slap the blue haired girl. "How long have you known?"

"I just found out yesterday... I was kinda' hoping to talk to Ranma about this, alone," Akane replied, tenderly rubbing the back of her arm. For the first time in a long time, Akane felt truly timid and scared for what could happen.

Ukyo felt her anger die down, it would have been too terrible if Akane had been purposely misleading Ryoga and ignoring his obvious claims of affection. Ukyo had to wonder how dense Akane was for someone who got good grades in class, so she figured it was maybe like Ranma's condition. A great fighter but terrible in terms of being a romantic. "Akane... he's only gonna' tell you what you want to hear, not what you're supposed to hear."

It was then that Akane felt her anger surface again, "Well! Maybe I wanna' hear what I want!" she shouted, tightly closing her eyes before coming to the realization that she was indeed worried and concerned about her relationship with Ranma. Though a part of her didn't want to let go of having Ryoga around as a friend, he was so caring and awkwardly fun to be around.

The idea of him vanishing altogether made knots in her heart, not the kind that she'd feel for Ranma; his were more like butterflies in her stomach. The feeling of having fallen for one another after so many trails and coming to accept their interest in one another and now this new obstacle gets in their way and Akane has to consider joining forces with Ukyo.

Ukyo took a few steps closer and brought out her arm, hoping to seal the deal.

"You have my attention... b-but... I can handle my own problems, Ukyo," Akane replied, still refusing to look at her. It was that stubborn attitude of her that drove her to seek her own answers. Not to mention she still hadn't gotten Kasumi those ingredients. "I have to go, Ukyo..." Akane said, her face void of any expression as she walked past the chief/rival in love.

Ukyo stood her ground, she had been brushed off but soon Akane would dawn on the truth and then... hopefully... Akane would join forces with her. Although she had to wonder what was happening with Shampoo, since this moment was defiantly a code red on the Ranma radar.

"Akane... you better know what you're doing..." Ukyo said, concerned about the future events that have yet to unfold.

* * *

><p><strong>Shampoo &amp; Kuno<strong>

Now that the shop closed early, there really wasn't much to do for anyone at the nekohaten. And that was certainly a good thing, since Kuno appeared to be covered in bandages. His kimono shirt had become undone, enabling anyone to see that his torso was wrapped in bandages, his forehead bandaged with a single patch on the side of his cheek.

Shampoo on the other hand was relatively alright, but she seemed to be timid now. The entire time she was sitting down with Kuno she refused to look at him. Not because she felt romantically awkward, but because she had beaten the living hell out of the bokken user and for a stupid reason at that.

The blue thunder momentarily landed his eyes on the purple haired girl, she seemed rather cute with how she was holding her tea cup and staring at the little tea steem floating in the center. "My..." Kuno began, crossing his arms and looking up to the ceiling. "this establishment is rather... quaint..." Kuno said as his hands went into his sleeves and inspecting the room. It was certainly not his best ice breaker, but considering the fact that it was Kuno, it was perhaps his most sane phrase ever.

Shampoo nodded her head, "Is best we do... we get good customers," Shampoo replied, still unwilling to make eye contact. It almost seemed like Shampoo was a shy school girl.

Lowering his head, Kuno evaluated the concept of marrying Shampoo, would it be all bad? _'This Shampoo character is odd but not as unpleasant as before... might there be something for us?' _Kuno thought. Her had to factor things in, rather than making a rash decision; much like he usually did. Shampoo was certainly strong now, in fact she seemed too strong to be true. What had caused her to lose to him the first time? _'Ah! Yes! Saotome's interest in the male of a fool who stole the pig tailed girl from me! I must say... he does... prefer variety if Saotome and my darl-' _Kuno's eyes widened before he sighed and corrected his thoughts._ 'the pig tailed girl are his choices, I can only guess he has a long road ahead of him, such is the life of a great man.'_ Kuno then continued to ponder the idea of Shampoo and found that she was strong, in fact she was stronger than Akane, with Akane he could at least occasionally get a hit on her, but never really found the need to land that blow, since Akane had been his first love interest. The difference in strength between Akane and Shampoo was rather extensive. Now the pig tailed girl was on an entirely different level and he knew that she wasn't taking him serious when they fought, and he had to admit that was one of her more attractive qualities. Even then his knowledge of her was limited, that also added mystery to her, since she even tended to vanish from time to time, making her a jewel in her own means. Now this Shampoo girl, besides the obvious poor grammar... she was a joy to be around and even rather beautiful, beauty that he believed matched if not surpassed Akane's. Though a first true love had to have more meaning than someone he 'could' fall for, even if she did meet more than the needed qualifications. What was holding him back?

Shampoo looked up from her cup and saw that Kuno had been looking down a lot, obviously in deep thought. She probably knew the reason, since it wasn't common for them to be around each other without Ranma being involved. "Shampoo is... sorry..." she said, hoping to spark some kinda' conversation up.

They had been sitting there for a good twenty minutes now, and then there was the thirty needed to treat Kuno's wounds. It was a bit surprising how resistant Kuno's body was, but it was nowhere near as resistant as Ryoga's behemoth skin, but it was certainly enough to be able to recover from being sent through a cement wall, that, more than likely would have killed an average person.

Recovering from his thoughts the blue thunder blinked before responding to the purple haired girl. " Excuse me?"

Shampoo sighed and shook her head, she really hated apologizing, since it seemed like she did that too often. What with the fact she has on many occasions had to ask her great-grandmother forgiveness on account of the fact that she could never get Ranma to marry her. "Shampoo is sorry... Shampoo no stop to ask why you was laughing..."

It took Kuno a moment to register what she meant, there was a good reason why he needed to take a moment to think, since he received a little head trauma from their fight earlier. "Oh... you need not worry, I understand that I hadn't made my reason for laughing clear," Kuno replied, but she had jumped the gun and he could honestly see her remorse. "I suppose it was rather humorous that you misunderstood..." Kuno stated, hoping to ease her guilt.

Shampoo found herself baffled by Kuno's response... wasn't this the man who got picture of Ranma's girl form and was entirely insane since he refused to look at reality? Though the same could be said for her, seeing as she chooses to believe in a world where Ranma saw her as more than an annoying acquaintance that hung around trying to get his affection.

Was she really any better off than he was? Well, maybe... but still, she lived in a different world and nit picked the bits of reality that suited her best and that was the 'condition' with everyone at Nerima.

Kuno gauged her reaction and noticed that she didn't smile when he had said what he said, maybe it was because he was more used to being a romantic than a conversationalist.

There was an awkward silence between the two.

"...thank you," Shampoo said, looking down at her cup as the single tea stem floated in the middle. Shampoo knew that, that was a symbol of good luck but she wasn't sure if this was related to Kuno and the eventual marriage that was supposed to come. And why was she having such a hard time just letting Mousse defeat Kuno? Well, maybe she thought it was unfair or something and she also wanted to show Kuno her strength and Mousse would only get in the way of that, so, it was also a matter of pride.

The look of shock on Kuno's face was as if he heard that Shakespeare had risen from the grave and told him that he was a perfect example of a knight he'd write about in his fables. "You're quite welcome..." Kuno replied, nodding his head with his eyes closed.

"My, my..." Cologne said, making her appearance to the scene; quite literally popping into existence with her sharp skills.

Both the bokken user and the chúi wielder both turned to stare at Cologne, shocked and most of all... flushed from the idea of being romantically involved. "I-is no happening! H-he be husband, but Shampoo no love!" she exclaimed, pointing at Kuno while closing her eyes and throwing an anime style fit.

Kuno huffed before looking away, "You needn't worry about me, I am honor bound and I too... feel nothing towards this girl!" Kuno said, maintaining his composure, but failing with his tint of red on his cheeks.

Cologne rolled her eyes, this wouldn't be a simple process, she knew that honing the boy's skills would take a very long time... and getting them to accept their feelings for each other would take an even longer amount of time. Well, from what she could make out _'But perhaps I may have the order backwards...' _Cologne thought, seeing the changes in mood between the two teens."Anyways... me and Shampoo shall begin the training schedule at your residence."

Kuno quirked a brow, "And why is it my home that must be used for such training?"

Cologne locked eyes with him, giving him an intense look. The very depths of his soul felt as though they were being pierced by her overwhelming power. "Because, I'm curious about your home!" Cologne stated, smiling and laughing as she rubbed the back of her neck with her sleeved hand.

Kuno fell over from his chair, having been frightened and then shocked with how stupid her response was. "Kuno!" Shampoo exclaimed, going over to him and helping him up. Though what Shampoo said did help awaken him, referring to him by his actual name came as a shock.

"D-did you refer to me... by my name?" the blue thunder asked.

Shampoo' quickly released him and allowed him to fall, crossing her arms and looking away, embarrassed to have shown too much concern over the deranged Shakespeare.

Cologne placed one of her sleeved hands over her mouth and chuckled, enjoying the odd but still overall cute affection between Kuno and Shampoo. _'Perhaps this future holds more promise than I thought...'_

* * *

><p><strong>Ranma, Ryoga &amp; Akane<strong>

Akane couldn't get the feeling of dread to leave her, it was almost as if she was in a dark place and Ranma wasn't able to save her. Had she really become so dependent on the pig tailed boy? Where was her strength? Apparently her source of strength was being taken by a certain 'Lost Boy' and it didn't help that those two had been nearly inseparable. They still had their differences but they weren't too far away from one another, sure they'd have brief periods in which they didn't see each other but that was much earlier. It was rare to see the two away from each other now... they even slept in the same room, since they didn't have another to give and they didn't want Ryoga getting lost.

Akane sighed and figured she'd deal with this the moment she was allowed to talk to Ranma alone but first she had to get the spices to Kasumi and hopefully be allowed to eat something on this day. Though considering how long she took Kasumi might have just cancelled breakfast and opted to make something else.

Now she was approaching her gate door and took a deep breath before shouting, "I'm home! Sorry I'm late!" Akane shouted, hearing her voice echo as she heard sounds of what she assumed were arguing, but the voices were muffled through the walls. Her first initial thought was to see what the commotion was about but once she reached the front door porch she was able to make out the words more clearly and she knew it was one of Genma's and Soun's... Poke'mon arguments. Feeling her left eyebrow twitch from annoyance the blue haired Tendo opened the door to her home and stepped in, making sure to remove her shoes before stepping onto the wooden floor.

Gentle footsteps were heard before Kasumi walked out from a doorway, dressed as a nurse. "Oh... Akane," Kasumi said, feeling a sweat drop come from the back of her head.

Akane stood quiet, unsure of what to make of the situation, that was until her mind sparked a memory and she recalled having seen that outfit before. "Why're you dressed as that Nurse Joy woman?" Akane half-shouted.

Kasumi rubbed the back of her head and chuckled a bit nervously, "I got curious and wanted to join in on the fun..."

Akane wanted a better answer than that but something assaulted her sense of smell and she came across the aroma of food. "Wait... I thought you needed me to pick somethings up...?" Akane asked, seeing as the smell of food was in the air.

Kasumi lowered her head and found herself feeling odd, "It seems that I forgot about our other spice rack and I finished making dinner... your breakfast should be a bit cold, but... I can perhaps heat it up for you, Akane," Kasumi replied.

Akane was yet again in one of her eye twitching moments and yet she wondered why she hadn't come to except this from living in a strange district, like Nerima. "That's okay... but let's get back to the real issue here... why are you dressed like that?" Akane asked.

Kasumi smiled and nodded her head, "Nabiki got a Poke'mon related play ready for Genma, Father and Master Happosai. Ranma and Ryoga were sooo good!" Kasumi clapped her hands together, delighted with the performance of the two martial artists. "Ranma looked so cute as that Misty girl... oh and Ryoga... he was so dashing in that Ash Ketchum outfi-" the eldest sister opened her eyes and discovered that Akane was already running up the stairs. "I wonder what that was about..." Kasumi blinked, clasping her hands together and placing them on her apron; rather adorably.

As Akane was making her way over to the stairs she knew that they must've gone upstairs. She knew that Ash Ketchum and Misty were love interests for the clueless Poke'mon tamer and seeing how addicted Genma and Soun seemed, she could only assume that the play that they had done was romantic in a sense, when Akane reached the stairs she immediately headed to Ranma's room. Though before she opened the door, she heard Ryoga shouting, she so stood there and allowed the conversation to continue.

_"Stop messing around with me, if you're keeping me around just so you think being my friend will keep me from being with Akane, then you've got another thing coming, because here's a news flash Saotome..." Ryoga glared._

_"What are you on about?" Ranma asked, confused as to how they got onto the subject of making Ryoga stick around and the whole concept of Akane for that fact._

_"I don't want Akane anymore!" Ryoga declared._

It was then that Akane opened the door to the room, having come in at the wrong moment. "Ryoga?"

The blue haired girl stared at Ranma and Ryoga before looking down and finding herself... depressed. Akane recently found out that Ryoga had much more deep rooted feelings for her and to hear that he no longer wanted her, it made her feel less than important. All those times they hung out as friends seemed almost empty, not to mention those awkward dates she thought had no meaning behind them.

Ryoga gulped before staring down at the floor, too shy to say anything at this moment. Well, the cat was out of the bag and that meant that things would only continue to get awkward from here on out. The lost boy wished that Ranma would have just left him alone and permitted him to live a life of calm and quiet seclusion.

Ranma raised her hand, "L-Look Akane!"

"Shut up!" Akane shouted, tightening her fists as she clenched them to her sides. The blue haired girl rose her head and met eyes with Ryoga, baring her own set of fangs. "You don't want me anymore, huh!" Akane shouted, stomping over to him and sizing him up as the fragile Lost boy leaned back, too scared and confused to reply.

"A-Akane wait-" Ranma said, trying to be the voice of reason.

Ranma's attempts at maintaining the peace only received the hand, telling her to keep quiet. "I've got something to say!"

Akane took a deep breath and blushed, her eyes turning red as they were threatening to leak with tears, "I'm Ranma's fiance! You're not gonna' take my place and I know what you've been doing with Ranma!" she declared.

"Akane!" Ranma shouted, "You're not being replaced!"

Akane in the heat of the moment shot her head over to Ranma and then back to Ryoga, "That's right! Because Ranma's only doing this because he pities you! So don't try and take Ranma from me... you... you..."

At this point the lost boy's depression aura was radiating to the point where Akane could even feel it. And that's what she wanted, she wanted to push him away, make him feel so bad about trying to take the one she cared about. Her anger was going to blow like an over inflated tire with how much pressure she had building up and to her that was worth casting aside her good memories of having Ryoga around as a friend, as long as she got her way... even if she was only shouting because she was angry and probably didn't mean all of what she said.

At this point Ryoga was nothing but a living, breathing embodiment of sorrow. His breathing was even coming in a bit roughly as he stood there.

Ranma was even stunned at the lengths Akane went to, not to mention the fact that she had just revealed her true feelings to the martial artist. "I-I don't..." Ranma paused but then remembered that Ryoga was still present in the room and turned back to him.

She noticed that he dropped his head, the front part of his hair casting a shadow over his eyes. Though upon closer inspection Ranma could see that Ryoga's eyes were streaming tears, so much so that they were falling from the sides of his cheeks like small slow moving rivers.

Akane was now panting and lowered her head, calming down her breathing and realizing now that what she said, and she had to admit it was rather harsh. "W-wait... Ryoga... I didn't mean to..." she said, reaching her hand out. _'W-why didn't I just try and talk to them about this! And now I've gone and... and... ugh!' _Akane thought, mentally berating herself for having done such a terrible thing. The blue haired girl knew that Ryoga was the most sensitive of all the males in Nerima.

Ryoga didn't respond, he only continued to cry silently as Akane tried to reach out to him, but her hand was swatted away as Ryoga turned around and walked over to the window of the room before opening it and staring out at the sky.

Ranma turned to Akane and noticed that she was now holding her hand close to her chest, she knew that she deserved the treatment Ryoga gave her. "Akane, all I wanted was a friend..." Ranma stated, then turning back to Ryoga.

"Wait, don't leave Ryo-" Ranma tried to shout.

"Just leave me alone, Saotome!" Ryoga exclaimed, looking over his shoulder and meeting Ranma's eyes with a death glare. "It's all your fault that my life's become a living hell!" he shouted before jumping down the window.

"R-Ryoga..." Akane whispered, once again trying to reach her once dear friend.

It was then that Ranma was feeling enraged, after how hard she had worked in order for him to drop his barriers, how hard she wanted to have someone she could actually relate to and constantly challenge her abilities on a day to day basis rather than a month to month basis. It was time she gave Akane a piece of her mind, "Whaddya' have to go and do that, huh!" Ranma shouted, turning to the blue haired girl.

Akane remained silent, feeling her bottom lip quiver as she stared at the floor below her.

"I'm gonna' find him!" Ranma shouted, quickly going over to her closet and grabbing her set of clothing and shoes, jumping out from the same window as Ryoga had done.

The blue haired girl sighed, even she knew she deserved that. "I'm so sorry... Ryoga."

* * *

><p><strong>Genma, Soun and Happosai(At the same time as Ranma, Ryoga &amp; Akane)<strong>

Sound stomped out his foot and glared at the opposing panda and elder master. "It's clear that Misty does not like the fact that Brock continues to hit on other woman, that is why she grabs his ear and demands that he relaxes! It's as plain as day!"

Happosai, while sitting on Genma's panda shoulder was glaring down at his student. "Boy you're messed up in the head! It's obvious that she's just doing that to keep him from making a fool outta' himself!"

Genma simply nodded his panda head and emitted a panda sound.

"I insist that, that is the truth!" Soun shot back. "All evidence leads to Misty in fact not liking Ash as much! It's much more like siblings concern!" Sound continued.

"Brock would like anything with a decent pair!" Happosai exclaimed, "Didn't ya' see when Ash was staring at Misty when she wore that one kimono? Even an old man like me can tell they're meant for each other!"

Soun gritted his teeth and stomped his foot on the ground once more, shaking the room a bit.

All while poor Kasumi had to watch from the sidelines and place her hand on her cheek, they were being so childish. Though she knew what this would lead to, a fight and then have it settled with them drinking sake and laughing it off, then coming to some sort of agreement.

"I'm prepared to defend my belief!" Soun shouted, taking a defensive stance.

Happosai grunted and shot his hand out forward, "Get'em boy!" Happosai demanded of Genma. "I choose you, Pikachu!"

Genma raised his arms up and then brought then down, much like a Pikachu would do when releasing a thunderbolt. It was then that Genma tried to mimic the sound of a Pikachu in his Panda form and oddly enough it came out pretty well. Though Soun and Happosai were much too absorbed in the current fight to comment on that.

They've been so distracted with their argument that they hadn't even noticed the ruckus upstairs, and thus their shipper battle began.

* * *

><p><strong>Ranma &amp; Ryoga<strong>

Ranma even while running after Ryoga managed to change into her regular wear. In normal circumstances Ranma would have easily caught up with Ryoga, but he seemed to be doing twists and turns which would confuse Ranma or otherwise lose him when he's ran past something or vanish from behind the corner. It didn't help Ryoga that he would sometimes wand up running around in circles, making it so Ranma could get back on his tail.

Now the two were running down an alleyway, Ranma trying to grab him with her hand. "Ryoga! Just stop!" Ranma shouted.

Ryoga refused to even make eye contact with her, she was the bane of his existence. Everything he knew and how he was handling has life were shattered, which made him wonder if he was the same as Kuno. They had driven themselves into a insane state of mind because they refused to accept reality and would take excuses over the real deal.

"Ryoga! Just let me help!" Ranma proclaimed, hoping to reach him.

Ryoga gritted his teeth as his tears continued to cascade down his face, "I'm tired of you helping me!" Ryoga shouted, turning around and firing a powerful shishihoukudan.

Ranma's eyes widened before she instinctively jumped out of harms way and over to the lost boy, since he had taken the time to fire his ki blast, Ranma was given a window of opportunity.

The red head jumped forth and tackled the lost boy down onto the ground, straddling him before she reached down and grabbed him by the collar. "Bout' time I got'cha!" Ranma exclaimed, glaring at the fang toothed boy.

Ryoga avoided her eyes and looked away from her, still lost in his own depressed world. The way his eyes watered as he laid their, tired, sad, scared and lonely.

Ranma sighed and lowered her head a bit, "Look... Ryoga... Akane feels bad about what she said, she was just kinda' angry, I saw how bad she felt..."

Ryoga continued to stare off into space, only vaguely listening to her. "Whatever... all I want is to die alone and let everyone go on with their lives."

Ranma sighed before she began, "Ya' don't get it, do you...?" Ranma asked, "I care about you and so does Akane, you've been around so long and we've been through so many things together as rivals, that you leaving forever would be too much to cope with and if you tried to leave pal... I'd follow ya' till you'd decide to stay, since you and me can understand each other, more than anyone else here could."

Ryoga took a second to absorb all the information Ranma was feeding into him and his exhausted mind and tired body reacted to the moment by sitting up and wrapping his arms around the red head; although the way he grabbed her was more suggestive than Ranma would have liked, since one of his hands traveled to the small of her back, sending chills down her spine as she arched her head back a bit. She would have fought him on that, had she been given enough time to react to the sensations... but then the lost boy had leaned his chest up against hers, too intimately before pulling away.

Ranma took a deep breath, trying to calm down from the feelings Ryoga was giving her. She took a deep breath with her eyes closed before opening them.

Sapphire eyes met onyx as Ryoga reached one of his hands over to her and placed it on her cheek. The two had been so into the moment that neither really said anything as they seemed transfixed to one another. It was then that both gained their senses and looked away from one another.

Ranma knew it was now even harder to deny her possible feelings for Ryoga... and it scared her of what she had to do about this or if she should do anything about it at all. _'T-there's something wrong with me...'_

* * *

><p><strong>Kuno Manor<strong>

Walking down the streets towards Kuno manner was the ever insane sister of the blue thunder, Kodachi. She snickered and placed the back of her hand over her mouth, laughing in her usual stuck up manner. "My, my... I wonder what has happened in my absence, but I do hope my dear Ranma has missed me as I have him..." she swooned at the thought of meeting her beloved Ranma Saotome.

* * *

><p>Wow! That was really... exhausting... but enjoyable. I think my morale for this story has risen.<p>

Any who... I had intended for Akane to become a bit of an enemy but then I figured, isn't that a little too commonly used? And although I'm not a fan of RanmaXAkane, I had to do what was right. Akane feels remorse because she's not all that bad. Jumping the gun!... yes! A truly evil person? No.

And I wanted to finish this yesterday... but... Happy late Halloween!

Oh and if this story reach past 100 reviews on this 4th chapter. I'll continue to work on this fic next, rather than all my other projects. It's not a challenge, it's something I'll do if something happens and it's set too high for anyone to actually even do. Now some of you are of course gonna' call me a review whore and some of you might wanna' even report me. Though the thing is... I'm not asking you to do this, I'm saying I will do this if this reaches a certain amount and chances are, it won't happen anyways.

_Foxes from the Foxxy~_

_DaisukiFox~_


	5. Chapter 5

Is this gonna' be another moment where my readers give me a huge amount of reviews but review poorly the next time? o.O

Because OMG! Frick'in 34 reviews for one chapter! I thought to myself as I was posting chapter 4, no way are they gonna' go above 100 reviews, I set the bar too high for them to wanna' even attempt to reach. Then I was proven wrong!

Disclaimer: I don't own Ranma ½.

* * *

><p><em>Mewtwo is seen, then following him is Mew as they seem to be traveling near the moon's orbit. Then the screen cuts to a side close up of Ryoga's face as he's dressed as Poke'mon's main protagonist; Ash Ketchum. Back ground music is heard throughout this screen.<em>

_I wanna' be! … the very best! Like no one ever was!_

Ryoga's head was tilted down with his eyes closed, that was until he opened them with a firm determination and tilted his head upwards, the camera then cuts to a shot of Ryoga standing in an empty Poke'mon stadium, all the lights flashed on him while the camera pulls back.

_To catch them is my real test to train them is my cau-_

The entire screen changes into static, the static vanishes and is replaced by a black screen. Big red words flash over the screen...

Error! Error! Error!

_Cuts to the Ranma ½ opening theme song. And thus the real story begins..._

* * *

><p><strong>Nekohaten<strong>

Humiliation was one of the very few words Mousse had come to accept as being part of his life. He was the proud future husband of the beautiful Shampoo... and here he was, stuck in a cage and being feed table scraps. People have a certain amount of dignity and when it came to Mousse now... he had about as much dignity as unhappily married man did, minus the interaction between him and Shampoo. At least an unhappily married man was given some time with his woman, so, he had less dignity than a man like that. That didn't sit too well with Mousse, but there wasn't much he could do about his current predicament. Mousse was a master of hidden weapon, not an escape artist.

The feathered martial artist lowered his head and flipped his wings weakly, his flap accompanied with a weak quack. _'My darling Shampoo, what have I done to deserve this!' _he thought as he tilted his head upwards and quacking yet again.

Cologne was near the feathered fowl at the time and found herself staring at him. The aged martial artist shook her head and made her way over to him, she stopped in front of the caged Mousse and watched him from behind as he continued to cry out in quack based form of agony. Her first thought was to slap the cage and silence him, following with a threat; much like a drunken mother hits their child.

_'Shampoo! W-why won't you give me a chance! What did I do to deserve this! Why do you only ever follow your honor than your heart! Tell me!' _Mousse shouted but the only words that came from his mouth were. "Quack! Quack! Wak! Quack! Wak! Quuuuaaaakkkkeee!"

There was something about this scene that Cologne couldn't ignore, she was still human. Her remorse finally managed to seep through all the cruelness that she contained and maybe it was time she informed the hidden weapons master about her plan. "Look..."

Mousse only continued to cry out in duck language, not even taking the time to notice Cologne's words.

This bothered Cologne; she didn't like to be ignored, so, she slapped the cage with her cane and watched as the bird within it quacked in fear before turning around and noticing Cologne. Her action put Mousse on the defensive; as odd as that looked, coming from a duck.

"Save your energy, Child... err... duck... you probably wish to know why we've kept you in this cage for so long, right?" Cologne asked.

Mousse noticed that she only wanted to discuss something with him and although he would have preferred to talk to her 'human' face to face, he'd have to settle for duck face to mummy face. He nodded his head and waited for her to continue.

"I know your eager to challenge Kuno, you wish to take his position and marry Shampoo, correct?" Cologne asked, narrowing her eyes.

Mousse nodded his head with all the might his duck body could offer.

"I merely wish to give this Kuno lad a chance... you see, where you have nothing to support a family with Shampoo, Kuno has the funds to make such a happy and productive family with Shampoo, he can offer her what you fail to do..." Cologne explained, watching as the duck glared at her now or as far as she could tell from the look on his face; his glasses didn't help to make him seem intimidating. Though she continued, "I'm aware of what you could do in China to make ends meet but this Kuno child has proven to be not only be capable of supporting a family but as well as manage a family, he may seem insane, but there has to be a reason why he can keep on being wealthy and being as deluded as he is..."

Mousse tried to argue with a quack but found himself at a loss for words. He lowered his head in defeat, why wasn't a standard why of living okay? Ranma wasn't rich! There had to be something else!

"I understand what you're thinking... Ranma was not too wealthy either but his skills would have been enough to land him a top position within the tribes, therefore helping him reach above standard wages and not only that provide us with a child of equally great potential," At this point she was able to notice that a dark aura cloud was surrounding him.

"My point is... I'm going to allow you to exit this cage when I feel the time is right, this 'Kuno' deserves a fighting chance and he shall fight you when he has received proper training and I am fully aware of what you plan to do if you come out of your cage," Cologne stated.

The duck in the cage quacked in annoyance, pretty much confirming Cologne's idea. "Patience child... your time will come and when it does, we shall see who is truly deserving of my granddaughters hand in marriage..."

Cologne knew that she was risking a lot on this actually working, Kuno and Shampoo had yet to accept any possible feelings for one another. Hopefully she could get that Kuno child to follow her training; long enough for her to make him a more formidable opponent... or at least strong enough to take on a hidden weapons master. This would be certainly one of her greatest challenges but maybe she had to break his mental barriers and get him to accept that he isn't that great of a warrior, _'Only then will his abilities flourish...' _Cologne thought.

* * *

><p><strong>Happosai, Genma &amp; Soun<strong>

Maturity didn't really suite the three eldest members of the house, since they wanted to be duke it out over a romantic pairing in a series about Pocket monsters, which was the English translation or shortened phrase for Poke'mon. If only to add insult to injury, Soun retrieved his custom made fan, which upon flipping open, revealed a pink heart with the words 'MistyXBrock' on it.

"You dare bring that out in front of me! Your grand master!" Happosai shouted, reaching his boiling point. Often times he would prefer to be matched with the woman he saw, but since it was a series he was able to pick who was best suited for being with someone. It was a common practice for him when it came to soap operas... why had he gotten into soap operas? Kasumi happened to be watching one and Happosai came in during an undressing scene and saw the main character in nothing but her unmentionables.

Genma in his panda, Pikachu colored state charged the Brock cosplayer and attempted to do a tackle.

"I dare!" Soun shouted before dodging out-of-the-way and making Genma exit the Tendo home from the back porch.

Genma swiftly managed to control himself and shift his massive panda weight, well enough to turn around.

"Whoa!" Happosai cried, holding on the Panda's shoulder, as best as he could. The grand master composed himself and glared at Soun for a moment before hopping off Genma's shoulder. Happosai was already insulted enough and he intended to end this battle in the most epic way he knew how.

"First you dare to hold something like that right in front of my face, not only that... you dishonor our school," he said, although he didn't have the right to say what was honorable or not for the school, he still felt that he could say that since he was the most experienced martial artist. "No member of the School of Anything Goes is a MistyXBrock lover!"

Soun glared and although he had no chance against the grand master, he would stand his ground for the pairing he believed most. "Then perhaps I have forsaken the art..."

"Yer done for!" Happosai shouted, placing his hand in his purple Gi and pulling out what seemed to be a small make up kit. Then with his other hand he tore off his purple Gi; much like a James Bond movie, in order to show the entire house his cosplay out of Charmander.

Genma took notice of the fake Charmander tail popping out from behind Happosai's back. It was then that the grand master twisted the lid off the small make up kit and began to quickly apply the orange make up to his face.

"Charmander!" Happosai shouted.

Anyone other than Kasumi would have found this scene downright ridiculous, but she thought it was all in good nature. She wasn't even one to speak, since she was wearing a Nurse Joy outfit, only because she felt it made her feel cute. The eldest sister blinked for a moment when she saw Happosai dressed as Charmander.

"That doesn't look too bad on him..." she commented.

Nabiki now entered the room with a plate in her hands. She didn't seem all too concerned with the scene of utter chaos, it was part of her everyday life now. "Let'em finish this..." Nabiki commented, taking another bite of her food. "More food for us then."

"Now that would just be rude, Nabiki," Kasumi stated and shaking her head, disagreeing. "I'm sure they'll finish soon."

Soun stared at Happosai before placing his hand over his mouth, trying to keep his fits of giggles under control. Not even realizing that he was probably at the same level of stupid looking.

"Laugh now! But lets see how ya' laugh after this!" Happosai shouted, jumping up into the air and pulling out one of spherical object. "Happo-Fire-" Happosai shock his head before correcting himself, "Flamethrower!"

Soun didn't even take notice of Happosai's attack before it was too late, his Happo-Fire... er... Flamethrower blew up on the hated MistyXBrock shipper. Soun fell to the ground, his eyes twitching as he was covered in a small anime layer of ash.

"That'll learn ya'..." Happosai stated, dusting off his hands off. "Now... who are ya' into?"

Sound's body gave a spasm before he groaned out the following words, "Ash and Misty were meant to be with one another... their love is scared as the temple Buddha," Soun said, using his poetic talk in order to sooth his already irritated master.

Happosai chuckled and placed hands on his hips, victory for his pairing achieved.

Genma pranced around the fallen Soun with several celebration poppers going off. Genma was so proud that he even ended taking the MistyXBrock fan and crossing the name Brock out and replacing it with Ash.

Kasumi throughout this entire display tilted her head, perhaps this whole Poke'mon thing was getting out of hand. Was it really bad that Soun's opinion differed from theirs? Was it worth using martial arts techniques in order to defeat someone over an argument? She did have to factor in the fact that their martial arts style was 'Anything Goes' school of martial arts. This must have been one of those moments where they could break the rules, so, Happosai was within in his rights to abuse his abilities. In her mind it was a bit silly, which made it amusing since Genma, Soun and Happosai were all used to the damage their skills brought.

"I believe the Poke'Center is now serving breakfast!" Kasumi said, bowing once with her hands together.

Happosai slapped his hands to his cheeks, maintaining his composure in front of the adorably beautiful Nurse Joy impersonator. "Y-ya' got it, Nurse Joy!" Happosai exclaimed, marching over to her in a very peculiar fashion. "Would you carry me?" he paused, placing his behind his back and kicking an imaginary rock. "I'm just a little Charmander."

Kasumi chuckled before reaching down and taking the grand master in her hands. "Just this once... okay?"

Happosai smiled and nodded his head, "You're really too kind to an old man like me... er... I mean... Charmander!"

Genma's panda stomach growled at the mention of food. "Bwa!" Genma groaned, before raising up one of his trademark signs. "Finally! I'm starving!"

The entire group entered the house, ready to begin their day. Though it didn't occur to anyone what happened to Ranma and Ryoga or even Akane for that matter.

* * *

><p><strong>Akane <strong>

Akane returned to her room, sitting on the edge of her bed she contemplated many thoughts that swarmed her mind. Did she really just confess to Ranma while Ryoga was around? And no doubt she had also rejected his old feelings for her. Why did she leash out without really considering the amount of damage she could do? She knew it was within her abilities, but whenever something that involved Ranma came around, that sense of reason escaped her. The answer was simple but she refused to fully address it until her mind finished sorting everything out.

At the beginning she fought tooth and nail to defy her marriage to Ranma, since she had her own personal vendetta against men but as time went on she became closer to men. The most important thing to consider was... what brought this out? Reluctantly Akane admitted to Ranma playing a part in that. He showed her that although men can be jerks, they did often times have a noble side to them and even though they could be some of the most perverted creatures on the face of the planet, they could be caring and gentle. Though maybe she already knew that but choose to ignore it, she even contradicted herself by thinking such thoughts, because at one point she had a crush on Doctor Tofu. _'Doctor Tofu...' _Akane thought. _'That really brings back some memories' _Akane then sighed, her trip down memory lane wasn't going too well.

Then he came along and changed her view, Ranma's very presence disrupted the natural flow of things. Chaos follow him whenever he went and due to his existence within Nerima, Akane was shown that women could be just as stupid as men. Did she consider herself part of the bullheaded women of Nerima? _'N-no... I-I couldn't be... that's impossible...' _Akane continued to ponder, but she herself had also jumped the gun and contributed to the absurd challenges the other wackos in Nerima have been doing. Though sometimes she was roped in, against her will. Through it all... Ranma was there for her, whether being a jerk to her or helping in her time of need. At times they would even have their moments with one another and Akane, although she'd never admit it out loud, she treasured those moments of gentleness between them. Times where she and Ranma would allow their personal barriers down and just enjoy their company.

Then of course there was Ryoga to think about and even then she wasn't sure what to feel about him. They had gone out on a few dates and she even liked the fact that Ranma seemed to follow her around, his claims about him just being a pervert might have been right but that was possibly because she didn't know what to make of Ranma at the moment. All those lies he just kept giving her hindered her from trusting him... especially since she lied about everything that was going on between Ryoga and him.

That caused a tightening in her chest, as if her heart was a harp and someone was playing her terribly. The blue haired Tendo child closed her eyes and tried to relax, now wasn't the time for that. Now was the time that she truly came to terms with it, she loved Ranma Saotome. The man amongst men of the martial artist and no matter how many times she claimed that she didn't care about him, it was really her crying out for his attention, crying out to be noticed by him and have him embrace her on her feelings, since she believed that the feelings of romance were neutral for one another.

And she also came to conclusion that she didn't hate Ryoga, whether he was there to just comfort her... he was still a caring person she needed around. The lengths Ryoga went for her were impressive and half of the men in Nerima wouldn't go that far anyone, yet alone a woman who doesn't even recognize their feelings, only till they involve someone they care about 'but' now the biggest question was... was she ready to have her life do a complete one-eighty?

Akane lowered her head and figured now wasn't the time for her to bother Ranma with her love, after her last actions she figured this would be the time period in which she and Ranma could really build a deep friendship, which she would take to another level... soon enough. A part of her wanted them to be closer, as friends, hell, even with Ryoga.

Didn't they deserve have really close friends that depended on one another? Akane did have her other two friends at school... but Ranma and Ryoga were a different story. And now she knew what she had to do, apologize and hopefully be able to start anew.

"When you get here Ryoga, I'm gonna' tell you how sorry I am..."

* * *

><p><strong>Ranma &amp; Ryoga<strong>

There was a thick hinting of romance between Ranma and Ryoga now. Ryoga managed to force his composure and released Ranma's cheek, feeling embarrassed for technically caressing Ranma, in more ways than one. "You can get off now..." Ryoga whispered, keeping his head down and his emotions in control.

Ranma blushed before doing so, moving away him, she reached her hand out to him. "Come on... let's go back to the house," Ranma stated, hoping her hand out would be accepted.

Ryoga shook his head and stood up on his own, it felt too awkward to make any physical contact with Ranma. "Alright."

Ranma sighed and figured maybe he had a good reason for not wanting to take her help, but if they were going to be friends that had to accept friendly gestures. "Yeah..."

The dynamic duo began their journey back home, which wasn't much of a journey since neither seemed to wanna' say anything. Ryoga of course was able to follow Ranma without the need of her hand on his, that was an improvement. Although it never seemed to be an issue, the original reason was so Ranma could mess with him, also Ryoga's reasoning could almost be too easily swayed but his stability didn't hold out for too long, she wanted to discuss this with him but felt rather awkward... it wasn't easy asking someone about why they're being so dramatic. Ryoga's case was a rare one, being alone and constantly lost had to be a burden that plagued him constantly. All the times he must have been called stupid for his bad sense of direction, his distracted mind, his confused feelings, his need to cling to things and his Akane like need to jump the gun and assault all those who even mess with him. Though surely she couldn't have been the only one who's messed with Ryoga this mess? Why was she so special? Was it because she was actually a challenge to him? Was Ryoga living in some made up world where he believed himself to be the hero and him as the antagonist? Was Akane the damsel in this story? _'Huh... guess she isn't anymore, after all dat happened...' _Ranma thought. _'What's he thinkin'? He tells me he doesn't want Akane now and now runs off to try and get away from us... just make up your mind!... and stop touching me! Oh Kami-sama... why do I have to endure hell to have a friend? Argh!' _Ranma thought.

Ryoga watched Ranma's frustrated looks and knew that they had something to do with him and his 'special touches' and like any good martial artist he had to apologize. "Hey Ranma... can we forget what happened?"

Ranma was broken from her thoughts from the suggestion Ryoga made and she had to admit that was one of the better things of the day, which came as a great relief. If they were willing to put things behind them, then maybe there was a chance for their friendship to actually happen. "Forget what happened?" Ranma asked, looking over her shoulder and grinning, raising her thumb up.

Ryoga was glad that she was willing to ignore the events of this day but was in no way ready to smile at this moment.

Ranma knew there one last thing they had to deal with before they could truly put this day behind them. "But ya' know Kane's gonna' wanna' talk with you..."

Ryoga sighed and for the first time in a while he placed his hands in his pockets, feeling the tension of the moment get to him. "Fine..."

Ranma slowed her pace just enough to match Ryoga's and be standing next to him. "Hey... she ain't gonna' give you too much problems, and if she does," Ranma stated, "I'm here for ya', pal."

It was odd enough just having Ranma defend him, but it felt like the first time she defended him. It still couldn't possibly mean anything, since Ranma wasn't a real woman and that meant less than having a real girl say those kind, kind words. At least that's what he wanted to feel, her words left more of an impact to him. "I can't be worth all this effort Saotome,"

Ranma tilted her head and seemed confused. "Huh?"

"Just awhile ago you'd never say any of these things... what happened to us?" Ryoga asked.

Ranma sighed and placed her hands behind her head, since that seemed like a good way to keep Ryoga's from landing on her. "Yeah... I get where you're coming from." Ranma replied, pondering the question a little more. "Like I said... I guess I care about ja, your one of the few people I wanna' have as a friend, I ain't sure if it's because we have history or because we're both rivals but I know it'd suck to not have you around, Ryoga."

Ryoga felt himself blush but this time it wasn't the awkward feeling he felt when he was forced into a romantic situation with Ranma, this was a feeling of acknowledgment. All the times he had to endure those insults and seeming weak against Ranma, not to mention all those times Ranma would make him change into a pig in order to not have to deal with him, and the training... and the shishihoukudan training. This was a sense of accomplishment. Although he wasn't going to let Ranma know about that.

"Whatever..." Ryoga scuffed.

Ranma chuckled and before grinning widely, "You're a real softie for compliments, ain't ya', pig-breath?"

Ryoga buried his conflicted feelings and turned to Ranma, staring at her for a moment before shaking his head. He would respond to Ranma's statement, but much like a politician, he ignored the subject and looked for the nearest thing to talk about and lo and behold, the Tendo home was a small distance away. "We're back."

Ranma reached out her hand and placed it on Ryoga's shoulder, nodding her head with a strong confidence. They would have gone further had they not seen something truly bizarre.

Then quicker than anyone expected, Genma(Panda form), Soun and Happosai hooped over the Tendo fence, Genma still dressed as a Pikachu, Happosai now dressed as a Charmander and Soun was also in his last outfit; Brock's.

"Are you really related to him?" Ryogas asked, looking towards the annoyed red head.

Ranma slapped her forehead and lowered her head, "I don't want to talk about it..."

From there the Tendo gate opened and out stepped Akane Tendo, the blue haired girl looked like she had just been told that her father was an anime fan. And that was true to an extent and that made her feelings towards his awkwardness even worse. She sensed that someone was staring at her and looked over her shoulder, spotting Ryoga and Ranma.

"Oh... hey there," Akane said, a bit timidly."

* * *

><p><strong>Ukyo<strong>

Ukyo felt as though her time to save Ranma from Ryoga was escaping her. Akane wasn't willing to help her and there wasn't much options remaining at this point. Had she thought about going straight up to Ryoga and demanding that he stop trying to see Ranma as something more than a friend? What chance did she stand? She knew that Ranma would only try to fill her mind with useless excuses and would keep lying to her. Her best option was to eliminate Ryoga by defeating him and then hiding him so they could bring Ryoga to his senses and that would in turn cause Ranma to fall in love with her. It was to the point where she had a daydream about Ranma thanking her for saving him from turning into an odd pervert like Ryoga.

She was used to having a cohort assisting her, but she pictured herself more like a cliche, hero duo rather than two villains plotting. Though she had to admit planning and scheming in the background was rather underhanded, but to her this was the battlefield of love and she would conquer with her superior plotting. Now all she had to do was list her options and try to get some help, Ryoga was certainly out and Shampoo was no where to be seen. That struck her as flat out strange, but her experience with Shampoo told her that it probably wouldn't work out with her. Both of their personalities would try to dominate the other, take Ranma as the prize and barely even work together. Had that stopped them before? It was worth a shot... that or she would work with Kodachi.

"Shampoo it is..." Ukyo sighed. Ukyo knew that if it ever came down to working with Kodachi, she'd probably need to see a therapist. She just hoped it wasn't going to be one of those desperate times called for desperate measures kind of thing.

* * *

><p><strong>Kodachi<strong>

The black rose of St. Heberke High School stood before her gate and pressed the intercom button at the front. She waited for a few seconds before the intercom came to life and Sasuke answered. "Hello?"

"Sasuke... I have returned from my trip, please alert my dim witted brother and open the gate, thank you," she smiled.

A stuttering Sasuke was heard over the intercom, "Well... you see... Master Kuno isn't here, he's busy," Sasuke replied, before pushing the button to allow the gate doors to open.

Kodachi's mind had to register the new information that her intelligence was recieveing. She stood there for a whole ten second before widening her eyes. "Stop fooling around, Sasuke!" Kodachi chuckled, placing the back of her hand against her mouth; her mind took the information as false.

Sasuke opened the door to the Kuno manor and shook his head, "I'm entirely serious, he's busy with a woman," he replied.

Of all the things she could come home to, she had to come home with the idea of her brother actually have a social life. There was no reason for Kuno to have a social life, at least not before her! "Perhaps she pities him and wishes to only take him for his money..." she momentarily stopped to consider who it could be.

"Please tell me my brother has not gotten the affection of that cheap red headed harlot!" Kodachi exclaimed, hoping that her crazy brother had stooped as low as someone like her.

Sasuke shook his head, "No... this girl is much more different, but in no means the pig-tailed girl," Sasuke stated, before coughing and continuing. "He's gone with that Shampoo girl, I'm sure you're aware of the girl with the poor grammar."

Kodachi cupped her chin, trying to remember which girl it was. "Ah yes... the barbaric one whom wishes to steal Ranma darling from me, but of course she has no chance against, moi," she said, going for the french word of 'me' as was her strange and pretentious ways. "But I'm getting to the bottom of this..." Kodachi exclaimed before going into the house.

"I will need different attire for this..." she said, mentioning the fact that she was in her gymnastics uniform. Though she would have preferred to wear something more stunning and awe striking, she thought something like that was too glamorous for such a commoners' restaurant.

* * *

><p><strong>Akane, Ranma &amp; Ryoga<strong>

Akane's pride only ever seemed to apply anything pertaining to Ranma and this was one of those rare moments where Akane had to give and allow herself to be truly gentle. This was Ryoga and even though he had a different motive and was just one of those guys chasing after her emotions, he was still there to listen without implying too much of his romantic interest in her.

Bracing herself she stepped forward to the lost boy, who seemed frozen in fear by her very presence and she couldn't very well blame him, since she just yelled to him like an escape patient and made him cry. "Look Ryoga... I'm sorry..."

Ryoga had expected to receive some more harsh words before they'd get to the gentle talk, but to his surprise Akane didn't. Though he remained silent, unsure of what to say.

Ranma sighed and knew this wouldn't have been as easy as a simple apology, _'I kinda' don't blame ya' pal... what she said was just flat out harsh to you and not to mention he used to have such a crush on you, then she goes on about me right in front of you...' _Ranma thought.

"Akane... t-thank you, but if you don't mind... I don't wanna' see you right now," Ryoga stated, hoping to get passed this as painlessly as possible.

Akane sighed and knew this was going to be difficult, like many things in Nerima. There had to be something she could do! Without further complicating things but the question was easier asked than answered. "I understand what you're feeling Ryoga..."

Ryoga shook his head, "I don't think you do Akane... because even I don't understand."

Ranma placed her hand on Ryoga's shoulder. "Let's just get this outta' the way, guys... forget about everything that happened today and just hang out like friends, kay?" Ranma asked.

Akane lowered her head a bit, her eyes becoming a bit misty before she came to the conclusion that Ranma was right. Things felt too rushed and weird at this time, "Y-Yeah... that sounds good," Akane smiled, her tears building up and falling from her cheeks as she forced her smile. "But I have to know something first..."

Both Ranma and Ryoga gulped, when she had questions they were usually very bad.

"Ryoga..." Akane started, standing before Ryoga. "Do you like Ranma... romantically?"

Ryoga's face became as hard as stone when she asked her question and by the look on Akane's face, she wanted him to outright deny it. Though his voice got caught his throat and he wasn't able to answer as quickly as he wanted to. His breathing became panicked and he felt his cheeks redden at the idea of him with the pig-tailed girl.

"Hey Akane, ya' ain't gotta' ask em'-" Ranma tried to answer but saw that Ryoga held his hand out in front of her; causing her to blink in surprise.

From Ranma's angle she could see that Ryoga's head was tilted downward, so his hair could cover his eyes. "No, Akane... I don't see Ranma romantically and I never will, Ranma is nothing more to me than a friend."

Ranma found her eyes looking towards the ground, feeling depressed all of a sudden._ 'I... this is okay, got em' as a friend... so... I guess everything's okay, sorta'...' _Ranma thought, sighing with a slouch.

Akane was completely oblivious to Ranma's posture, since she felt that there was no competition for Ranma's love.

* * *

><p>There ya' go! I hope you liked that and I'm glad the last chapter did so well! The next chapter will have some things between Ukyo and Shampoo and Kodachi. And don't complain too much about other people's scenes, because they might be relevant to the story!<p>

Now the review bar for this will be... over 140 reviews. I'm not saying I need to have it this high, but if it gets to this level I will work on ch6 next. You're not obligated to do so and I don't mind focusing my attention on this fic.

Ranma's Pig Problem's is probably gonna' get another chapter soon. Probably. Depends on the outcome of this chapter.

And happy early Thanksgivings!

_Foxes from the Foxxy~_

_DaisukiFox~_


	6. Chapter 6

_I just figured that I would get around to this now and I have to say, I was planning on posting this in December. Though that wasn't gonna' happen, I decided against that and figured I might have earned a little break. I gotta' get to my team project with Dr. Face, hopefully the support won't drop for that one by the time I do get around to it._

_Disclaimer: I do not own Ranma ½, I am not too good a writer so I don't think anyone could take my dialogue._

* * *

><p><strong>Kuno, Shampoo and Cologne<strong>

Cologne for a reason beyond her understanding decided to not visit the Kuno manor. It confounded her to no end but she knew better not to question this thought, often times her judgments where correct. Though Ranma challenged her instincts and defied them most of the time, effectively proving her wrong... she would still trust all her other gut feelings.

She decided to tell Kuno about her choice to delay their training and now that she thought about it he probably wasn't in a good enough condition for training. There was no doubt that his body was resilient but it would at least need another day of recovery to get over his wounds, which was still pretty astounding for someone like him.

When she spotted Kuno she saw that he was leaning against the cement wall from across the Nekohaten, along with him was Shampoo, Kuno seemed uninterested in the training and looking as though he had much better things to do. Shampoo on the other hand was just standing next to him, a dull and uninterested look on her face as she seemed to be staring into blank space; lacking any enthusiasm for the training. Cologne figured that was because she was still unsure about her feelings towards the Kuno boy but it was to be expected, Kuno had just gotten an advantage when Shampoo's pride was wounded by Ranma. _'Perhaps all of this could have been avoided, had I taught Shampoo to control her feelings... many warriors lives could have been spared if they had just tempered their feelings.' _Cologne thought as she approached the door. Though before she could reach her cane out to pull the exit door out she noticed that Shampoo had secretly made the gap between her and Kuno, smaller.

Cologne chuckled and lowered her head, shaking it gently. "Perhaps this outcome was fate's strange doing..." she whispered to herself then opened the door. "Shampoo, I find it quite odd that you would stand next to this Kuno fellow, wouldn't you rather do something else then watch me try and train this delusional man?" she asked, smirking.

Shampoo huffed and crossed her arms, "Shampoo feel bad, no is other reason..." she replied, not sure if 'she' believed what she said.

Kuno chuckled and brushed his hair back, "It is as she had said... she merely feels remorse for what she has done, nothing less, nothing more..." Kuno stated.

"You protest too much to be uninterested in one another... but I suppose I'll drop the subject for a moment, it's come to my attention that you Kuno, might not be ready for training; at least not with your in juries, courtesy of great-granddaughter, of course," Cologne stated, narrowing her eyes at the purple haired amazon.

Shampoo blushed before staring at the ground, not liking the fact that she had to be constantly reminded of her blunder. Shampoo figured it was understandable for her to his misunderstood his reason for laughing, he didn't clarify... then again she hadn't allowed him the opportunity to really explain, seeing as she lashed out at him and slashed him across the face. That was a reminder she could live without, but too bad for her that Kuno's face still had faint scratch marks, serving as a another reminder she'd rather have gone.

Kuno sensing her distress decided to address it, as he had done many times before. There was something about him needing to support her that he couldn't quite explain. "That is merely in the past and although it has caused my current predicament I harbor no ill-will towards her... in fact I am quite thankful..." Kuno stated, sighing contently. "I'd rather avoid being tortured for the day."

Support was the key to achieving a happy life together and although Ranma had shown Shampoo support in the past, it was never like this. His was often filled with complete denial that would never evolve from stage one and her Cologne would have to say that Kuno had gone as far as stage two. Now she wondered if probing him for answers would worsen the conditions for Shampoo and Kuno. "Well... now that makes me want to get you started even sooner, I suppose I can dig up some special herbs... of the magical varity..." Cologne chuckled deeply, if somewhat sinisterly.

Kuno shuttered at the idea, he already had enough magical experiences and even though he failed to defeat the wicked Ranma Saotome, he was still trying to figure out his feelings on this Shampoo girl. There was obviously something here for him to explore, a whole new realm in which he could probably grow from and become even greater than he already was or at least viewed himself to be.

"We's can be doing that great grand-mother!" Shampoo then turned to Kuno and smiled. "Chinease medicine fix all wounds!" she exclaimed, but then found herself a little to happy for comfort; mostly at the thought of Kuno being back to working condition. "Uh... is because you suppose to be strong!" she shouted, blushing and turning away, her arms crossing.

It seemed as though Shampoo was running out of excuses for her concern and Cologne couldn't help but want to snicker. She decided to dismiss this training session and thought that maybe Kuno would like to get used to the Nekohaten and visiting her and Shampoo. "As clever as that was... we could in fact start your training with some special herbs I've got in the back, but I'd like for you to get used to this place first, cause you're going to come around here, quite a bit..." Cologne stated.

Kuno sighed and bowed his head once. For some reason he dreaded being trained by Cologne, not because he had an agenda to attend to but because the idea of an elderly woman training a master bokken user, such as himself, well... let's say it left a bitter taste in the kendoist's mouth.

"Oh! Dear brother!" Kodachi waved as she approached them from a distance, waving her hand as she was jogging over to them. Though instead of her gymnastics uniform she was wearing the school uniform for high school.

The eldest brother of the Kuno siblings stopped dead in his tracks, he hadn't expected his sister to come and search for him. He knew that whenever she referred to him as her 'dear brother' there was always another motive... that or she wished to pester him by demeaning him and mocking him at every turn. "I don't have the time to deal with you!" Kuno paused before lowering his head ever so slightly. "Dear sister..." Kuno replied, narrowing his eyes as his voice dripped with venom. There was something that perplexed him though, why was he so angry at her appearance? Was he actually worried that Kodachi would find some way of ruining his time with Shampoo? Did he want Kodachi to ruin his time with Shampoo?

"My, my... what happened to your manners, brother?" Kodachi stopped and then turned to Shampoo and crossed her arms, giving the purple haired girl a once over.

Cologne also found herself staring at Kodachi, there was nothing but a wicked air to her. The aged martial artist sensed this not because she was intimidated by Kodachi sudden appearance but because she could sense a darkness to her, a kind of darkness that seeks to ruin things for others and take from others through unfair means. That was just a hunch, she needed more in order to confirm her suspicion.

Shampoo awkwardly awaited for Kodachi to pass judgment on her. Shampoo couldn't tell why but she kind of wanted the approval of one of Kuno's family members. There was no such luck for her, this was the ever stuck up sister known as Kodachi.

"Oh! I approve Kuno!" Kodachi stated, clapping her hands together and pulling out what appeared to be a celebration popper. It came as a shock to everyone, even Cologne. "This woman is perfect for you! Dresses tacky and has poor grammar and the mannerisms of a bore!"

Shampoo at first was delighted to see that she was being complimented but when she explained why Shampoo was perfect for him she suddenly felt her anger raise, maybe even more than when she was angry at Kuno for him laughing at her. Except her anger didn't come immediately, it gradually grew. It started with her face becoming shocked and her mouth hanging open as her left eye twitched and slowly that expression dropped into an awkward smile and them her eyes narrowed as she clenched her jaw, baring her own version of Ryoga fangs; only smaller.

"Who is you calling, tacky?" Shampoo demanded, stomping her foot out and holding up a clenched fist to Kodachi.

Kodachi didn't even consider her a threat, she made that plainly obvious with how little respect she seemed to have for Shampoo and the fact that she had the back of her hand suppress her small fits of giggles. "Darling that's nothing to be concerned about, you're still still with a member of the Kuno family, even though he's one of the lower denominations pf the family tree, he is still very much a Kuno..."

It was then that Kuno found his anger raising, there was something about the way she spoke to Shampoo that set his defenses blazing with a heat of passion. Much like all the other times his passion rose, but in this sense it was to protect with his words and actions, instead of using his bokken and some poetic speeches. "I will not stand idly by while you belittle my soon-to-be spouse!" Kuno exclaimed, standing forth and placing his arm out in front of Shampoo; mostly keeping her from thrashing his little sister.

There was a moment of silence while everyone stared, even Kodachi needed a second to compose herself. "I-I beg your pardon... brother?"

Kuno's eyes widened when he saw that all eyes where on him, especially Shampoo. Who at this very moment was only staring at Kuno, her eyes filled with wonder. Though she seemed to be in a trance while staring at Kuno, there was no way to tell if her trance like state was positive towards the bokken wielder.

"I must leave, now..." Kuno stated, looking away from Shampoo. If anyone looked close enough they would see that Kuno was unsure of his actions. The blue thunder twirled around and grabbed Shampoo's hand, snapping her out of her strange empty stare.

"Hey! Shampoo no is-"

"I am quite aware of what you wish to do!" Kuno shouted, towering over the amazonian girl. "But I am your soon to be husband, I demand that you listen to me, if only this once!"

Shampoo felt extremely compelled to follow Kuno's order, which came to her as alien and responded accordingly with her thoughts. Her mind instantly went to the obey function in her mind and she immediately allowed herself to be dragged away from the others. Her mind was trying to tell her to fight off this function she had but regrettably her thought process vanished, for the meantime she would obey her soon-to-be husband.

Many words came into mind but none had the impact needed to describe this moment and its insanity that oozed from it's very core. There was only two people who could watch and stare at the scene without being stuck in a shocked position. Kodachi because she wasn't all too concerned and Cologne who viewed this touching little scene as improvement between these two.

"You could scour the world over and there would never be a stranger love..." Cologne stated, snickering as smile pushed her old wrinkled skin up; displaying an over delighted old person face.

Kodachi placed her hand over her mouth, snickering. "And here I thought my brother had captured a powerful lover... but if he wishes to choose such barbaric girls, than who am I to oppose?" Kodachi playfully asked, her hand over her chest as she made a look of innocence.

It was at that moment that Cologne sighed and shook her head, "Perhaps I've found some in more denial than the Kuno boy..." she commented, turning around and walking back into the nekohaten. _'Though your battle is delayed Mousse... I believe it will not be necessary for you to defeat Kuno, if he has already smitten her...' _Cologne thought, humming as he mulled her thoughts over. She was about traditional customs and customs called for battles and tests of skill... was it okay for her to drop these for Shampoo? The question was much to difficult to answer now. "Nevertheless I shall train him..." she whispered.

Kodachi felt a vein twitch in her head, of all the amazing things she believed herself to be, she was not in denial. "My word... this world has gone completely insane..."

"Yeah, you're right..." Ukyo softly said, stepping forth and appearing to have walked over to Kodachi; without her noticing.

"My... it appears there are those who don't know how to mind their own business, perhaps you wish to gain the affection of my brother as well?" Kodachi asked, her snide attitude not going unnoticed. There was an awkward silence while Ukyo seemed to try and understand the situation that Kodachi was presenting him.

Her actions followed as such "Ha!" Ukyo laughed, holding her stomach and containing her laughter as best as she could. "Me and Kuno?" she asked, pointing to herself and smiling. The idea was just so absurd that she couldn't take the idea seriously enough.

Kodachi for a moment felt like asking what was so darn funny, but when Ukyo clarified she too admitted the idea of anyone being with her brother as humorous. "My word... t-this laughter is contiguous!"

After the two composed themselves and stopped snorting, Ukyo decided that now was the time to go through with her plan; rather reluctantly. "Okay... okay..." she sighed, taking a deep breath. "There's something I have to talk to you about."

Kodachi raised a brow, "If this is about sponsoring your restaurant then I believe you have the wrong person, members of the Kuno family do not endorse such low level eating establishments." she stated, making sure that Ukyo wouldn't try to squeeze any money out of her. In fact she found it rather odd that she was even paying attention to this urchin, _'Perhaps that uncontrolled laughter put me in a more than pleasant mood,' _Kodachi thought.

Ukyo felt her eyebrow twitch in annoyance, already have second thoughts about this little plan. Though she was reluctant to do so that didn't take away the fact that Ranma's virginity was in constant danger with Ryoga around and she'd be damned if she'd let Ryoga have that honor; the rightful honor she believed belonged to her, the cute fiance. "It's not about that... and even if it was I'd rather make it on my own terms," Ukyo explained, only saying that because one of her partnerships fell through and canceled on her at the last moment.

"I suggest you continue and quickly... my patience is wearing thin," Kodachi responded in a less than amused tone.

"Brace yourself... this isn't gonna' be easy," Ukyo warned.

Kodachi nodded her head, this had better be worth her time. There was many rich type things she had to do and there was only very little things in the world that could keep her from achieving those activities. Little did she know that she was in for a world of confusion.

* * *

><p><strong>Akane, Ranma &amp; Ryoga<strong>

Events unfolded and told the strangest of tales, the tale of one man's conflicted emotions and odd standing point for a relationship. Ryoga Hibiki was caught in a crossroads of sorts, since as time went on it became increasingly obvious that secret emotions were surfaces from the depths of his soul. Those emotions may have been there lingering for awhile or may have only been given birth recently, whatever the case was... Ryoga knew that he had to come to terms with his feelings. Though there was a sliver of hope for him, perhaps he was only confused. The conditions of his interest for a certain red head were unique and could be attributed to mere confusion, that was mostly Ryoga's excuse.

Now they were all going to the Tendo home, neither of them sure what to do with their spare time. After everything that happened, it was really strange to say anything. Though this was the case, Akane was rather relieved to think that Ryoga wasn't romantically involved with Ranma.

The biggest question she had to ask herself, was... did Ryoga really mean what he said? Did she jump the gun yet again in this scene? Replaying that odd confession, Akane couldn't help but wonder if she was being given half-truths. There was so much hesitation in Ryoga's words... why had she noticed just now? Because that little voice at the back of her head told her to consider everything before making such a rash decision to accept Ryoga's response. That isn't what she wanted! She wanted to build her relationship with Ranma as friends first... but how could she when she knew she was hopelessly in love with him?

Each seemed to spacing at the moment as they all walked to the Tendo home, Ryoga contemplating his next action whereas Ranma was trying to make sense of her earlier disappointment. Akane was much more skilled with emotional concealing but that was only because she lived for the role of denying any feelings for Ranma, but one would wonder why Ranma seemed to be having a difficult time accepting her jumbled feelings? The answer was simple, she only knew how to play the part of Akane's fiance, as a man. Doing this Ryoga was on an entirely different playing field.

"So... what now?" Akane asked, meekly meeting her stare with that of Ryoga's and Ranma's.

The two looked up from concrete ground beneath them and raised a brow; unintentionally mimicking each others action. "I dun know..." Ranma was the first to speak, "maybe, spare or somethin'?" she asked turning to Ryoga.

Ryoga hummed in thought before shrugging, "Might be good... I need to get some pent up anger out anyways," Ryoga stated, cracking his neck to the side as he figured he might as well get his stretching in.

Akane smiled, feeling a sense of nostalgia. Though it had only been small while back, Akane actually missed seeing Ryoga and Ranma sparing. It showed that they had their strange and awkward friendship.

Ranma forced her usual competitive smirk, a glint in her eye as she cracked her knuckles. "About time you came around, bacon breath..."

Ryoga narrowed his eyes, "Don't get too cocky Saotome... the only reason you've been spared from my wrath is because we had that whole mess to deal with, but now we're going to see who's stronger..." locking eyes with her he already confirmed their challenge.

Ranma waited before trying to speak, expecting Ryoga to say the following 'Prepare to die, Ranma!' line she had been oh... so been used to. He hadn't said it, which made for a very awkward staring scene, that anyone could mistake as two teenagers taking an interest in each other would do.

Realizing how much interest their moment implied, both ended up, yet again, copying each others moments. "Why didn't you say anything?" Ryoga said, crossing his arms, a light blush gracing his features.

"I-I thought you were gonna' say some more stuff!" Ranma countered, "Y'know, cause you're such a blow hard!"

Ryoga turned back in the direction of the house,"Whatever, I'm make you regret those words, Saotome."

"Bring it!" Ranma declared, getting ready to jump back and prepare for an all out attack.

Akane watch their little banter and couldn't help but understand everything that was going on between them. Now that she was willing to question things more, she saw something... something she was afraid she couldn't have with Ranma, a weird sort of deep understanding between one another or at least in terms of being a martial artist.

"Wait!" Akane shouted, holding her arms out. "Not on the streets! We can't handle explaining why there's so much property damage on street anymore!"

Both Ranma and Ryoga paused for a second and admitted that fighting on the streets could cause a few issues. "Then... the dojo?" Ranma asked, seeking Ryoga's approval.

"Alright."

* * *

><p><strong>Tendo Dojo<strong>

Akane was seated on a cushion as she watched the little intimidation ritual both Ranma and Ryoga had been accustomed to. Though this was only when the most serious of moments came into play, like two tigers waiting for the other to foul up and leave themselves open for an attack. The only thing Akane was happy to see about this fight; was that Ranma was actually a guy for this fight, so he had his strength advantage rather than his speed advantage he had when he was a girl, but that didn't change things, Ranma was still more speed than Ryoga was but admittedly Ryoga's strength was still on a higher level than Ranma's.

Ryoga stopped his stance and raised his finger, his eyes narrowing sharply. This was a rather unconventional stance for beginning a fight and he was hoping it'd do it's job of confounding Ranma and confound it did, since Ranma paused to stare.

"Huh?" Ranma wondered and shook his head. Maybe he should have been expecting this, Ryoga was Ryoga after all. "And I thought you got some new moves, Ryoga, but I guess that was askin' for too much, huh?" Ranma said, smirking as he was already well prepared for Ryoga's breaking point fighting style, because it just usually involved him and Ryoga dodging one another, Ranma avoiding Ryoga's breaking point and then delivering enough strikes to eventually take him down.

_'Sometimes he never learns!' _Ranma thought as he charged forward and aimed to jump and flank Ryoga.

Ryoga's eyes widened as his eyes caught Ranma moment's before he could even make and pointed his finger to Ranma's breaking point or rather pressure point; seeing as humans can't be broken with the technique. "Lion's beam!" Ryoga shouted, laughing a thin but barely visable red beam from his finger, the speed of the trick was so quick that Ranma barely even glimpsed at it when it hit him.

The force of the attack sent Ranma flying back and over to the corner of the room, smacking into the wall and falling down, gripping his stomach area, pushing back the urge to scream in agony.

Ryoga panted and felt sweat coming flowing from his brow as he fell to his knees and shooting out his arms, only to keep his face from hitting the ground. "D-Damn... still too early for it..." Ryoga commented, winded from using his new 'Lion's Beam'. _'Damn it... at least I actually got to use it, instead of it blowing up in my face, like all those other times...' _Ryoga thought, really glad to see that his move paid off.

For Ranma it seemed to be worse, every nerve in body was screaming for relief. At the moment he was numb all over and felt as though his entire body was like a sleeping leg; feeling like he was on pins and needles, coupled with fatigue at the same time. Did Ryoga somehow attack his entire nervous system?

Akane throughout the entire battle had honestly expected it to go differently, but right now she was more concerned about Ranma's condition. "Ranma!" she cried, going over to him and tenderly going over to place her hand on his shoulder and maybe help him out but the moment she touched him she saw him cringe.

"Argh! D-Don't touch me!" Ranma seethed, as he was starting to system seemed to be resetting.

Ryoga now fuled by his old feelings for Akane forced his tired body to stand up, shaking a bit as he made his way over to Ranma. Akane seemed to be in the defensive as she stood before him and shot her arms out, standing before the two. "That's enough, Ryoga! You already won... just don't hurt him anymore," Akane begged.

"I-It's not over..." Ranma mouthed out, ignoring the pain shooting pain throughout his body.

Akane then turned to Ranma and glared, "Is it worth everything your body is going through? Don't you know what his tricks do? He used something with the Lion's roar shot and Breaking point techniques!"

Ranma mulled it over with what little thought he was able to get through with all the pain traveling in his body. This was one of the moments where he had to admit defeat, by now Ryoga could have walked over and knocked Ranma out with a weak kick to the face. Ranma knew he wasn't as exhausted as Ryoga, but he was certainly more vulnerable than Ryoga.

It was then that Kasumi opened the door, a panicked look on her face as she entered the room; for some reason still wearing the nurse Joy outfit from before. "Oh my... Ranma!"

Akane instantly stepped in, keeping her from causing further harm to Ranma. "Wait Kasumi! Ranma screams when anyone touches him..."

Kasumi sighed and lowered her head, shaking it. Then she noticed how tired Ryoga seemed to be and he seemed to be forcing himself to stand, "Ryoga, do you need some help..." she asked, taking a few cautious steps as approached Ryoga, not sure if he was in Ranma's condition as well.

Ryoga's eyes went to the back of his head as he no longer had the energy to stand. "Ugh..."

Kasumi's eyes widened as she reached out for him as she caught him in her arms. The lost boy's head ended up landing in her bosom, many men in this position would be rather excited but Ryoga was far too tired to really do anything about it or even care for that matter. His objective was trying to remain conscious but that proved to be a much more difficult task than ever before.

"R-Ryoga?" Kasumi urged, shaking Ryoga in order to get a response from him. Fearing the worst she tried to reach over to his neck and check his pulse, before she could she heard a faint breath as Ryoga, sleeping soundly as his body demanded that he rest.

Ranma gritted his teeth and sighed, his chance at taking down Ryoga would come again. It was then that he felt a feeling he hadn't felt in awhile, a challenge, someone to contend with and maybe something else. It didn't bother Ranma as much as it would have before, why wasn't he shouting and demanding for Ryoga to get off his lazy ass and fight him?

Silently Kasumi decided to take Ryoga to Ranma's and Genma's room.

"W-Wait..." Ranma groaned, suddenly being reminded that he couldn't really act like his usual self if he wanted, his body wasn't in the condition to really challenge anybody. Ranma felt his body adjust to the damage and allow a very numb feeling to travel through his body. "I-I can move a little..." Ranma stated, shutting his eyes and began trying to stand up.

Akane noticed Ranma's strained movements and found herself blushing, this was their moment. To her this must have been the perfect setting, with Ranma's limited range of movement, Ranma was unable to avoid the topic of them, it went against her earlier claims but it could probably serve as a way to deepen their own friendship.

"Ranma... there's something I have to talk to you about," Akane began, finding her voice caught in her throat. "I-It's not like-" she stopped, shoving her habit scolding Ranma and went back to her original focus. "W-What I mean is..." Akane sighed, lowering her head and staring at the hardwood surface of dojo.

Ranma's suddenly got in the alert and averted his eyes from Akane, hoping she didn't want to start a deep conversation. Especially now of all times. "Y-You don't have to say anything, Akane..." Ranma replied, wishing Akane would leave this discussion for some other time.

"But I have to!" Akane stated, scooting over to the pig tailed boy, her eyes watering with a longing look. Her breath came out haggard as she gulped from what she was trying to force herself to do. Reaffirming her determination with a strained look, she reached over and placed her hand on the boy's shoulder.

"Ranma... remember what I said before Ryoga ran off...?"

Ranma tried to leaned back, shocked with the current circumstances.

"I meant what I said about you..."

* * *

><p><strong>Nabiki &amp; Kasumi<strong>

Nabiki and Kasumi ended up taking Ryoga over to his room. A concerning question was, why was Nabiki helping Kasumi with Ryoga? The simple answer was that there was some profeit to be gained from Ryoga, being that Nabiki still had a bet to win and whatever she could do to make things proceed smoother was certainly going to be within her power.

During their little walk to Ryoga's room, Kasumi appeared to be worried. "My... whatever Ryoga did must be unhealthy, he passed out in my arms," Kasumi stated. "I hope he gets well soon..."

"To make Ranma scream like that? You must've paid a heavy price." Nabiki commented as they reached Ranma's room. The middle Tendo sister reached her hand out and turned the knob, opening the door. The two softly walked over to the futon Ryoga owned and gently placed him down on it, Kasumi being the kindhearted person she was, tucked him in.

Nabiki eyed him as he rested, crossing her arms she shook her head. "Maybe I'm betting too much on you..." Nabiki commented, with a static look on her face.

"Ranma..." Ryoga groaned, gritting his teeth while he slept.

"Or maybe I'm not..." Nabiki stated, smiling before turning and exiting the room _'There might be hope for you yet...'_.

* * *

><p><strong>Dream Sequence<strong>

The dawning of truths waking breath, echoes through the halls of a person's mind. Leaving an impact greater than any wound, but depending on how the person reacts to these impact might be the key coming with a horrible truth or a great epiphany, an epiphany which may lead to great turmoil in the long run. Dreams in their nature are wild, truthful, misleading, confusing, lustful and can be most revealing about one's character.

Inside Ryoga's mind was an exact replica of Nermia, there was key differences in this version. Though it resembled Nermia in many ways, the differences were that it was silent enough to actually consider a pin needle dropping as a loud ruckus and that Nermia appeared to be devoid of bright colors.

In the middle of this world, stood Ryoga. Appearing as though he winked into existence, the lost boy reached out his hand and touched the side of his face, trying to recall any events but found that nothing was surfacing from his conscious. That meant that he would only live the moment that was occurring now.

"Where the hell am I?" Ryoga asked, his voice coming out faint. That faint sound returned to him as it echoed through the lifeless Nermia district.

"_Ryogggaaa..." _

Ryoga came to laugh and turned in the direction of a voice he heard in the distance, the voice coming out as familiar but not someone he could recognize at the moment. "Who's voice is that?" Ryoga asked himself before noticing his surroundings. Gasping he looked down to his own hands and found them as colorless as the world around him.

Then before he knew it voices began bombarding his head as they called out his name, each voice belonging to someone in the district of Nermia.

"_Ryoga..." _

"_Ryoga!" _

"_Ryoga!" _

"_Ryogaaaa...!"_

"Ryoga!"

"_Ryoga."_

"_Ryoga...?" the voice asked, sounding perplexed._

"_Is Ryoga..."_

"_My word, Ryoga!"_

"_Ryogaaa..."_

"_How dare you, Ryoga!"_

Each voice came screaming through his years, ringing in his ear drums as their seemed to be no end to the constant hate filled tones that called his name. Ryoga couldn't hold his own against these voices and forced himself to demand they stop. "Stop it!" he shouted, arching his head back, his mouth open as though he were roaring for them to stop.

Silence fell but so had the world around Ryoga and now he had becomed what he hated most, his piglet form. The small pig's eyes widened when he was standing on two hoofs and standing in a world of endless darkness, panicing the small pig ran on all fours, wanting to find some sort of light at the end of this tunnel... that was if he could find the beginning of the tunnel.

As he ran in whatever direction he could, he squealed and panted, traveling as far as his hated form could stand. Throughout his ran spectators appeared and hovered above him, staring down at him with scornful looks across their mugs.

"_If you think I'd let a filthy pervert like you touch my son, then you're as stupid as you look!"_ the Genma spectator shouted.

"_At least I was in a delusional world.. you are fully aware of you interest in another man," said Kuno._

"_You is gross, Ranma no fall for stupid boy!"_

"_Do you honestly think my Ranma-honey could ever love you?"_

"_Hm... I never pictured you to be into guys, maybe I should take photos of Ranma as a guy, just for you."_

"_This is most unbecoming of a martial artist... you are a disgrace."_

"_Hahaha! I knew this fool prefered the courtship of another man, not as if my Ranma darling would fall for such a man."_

"_Ryoga... you're not supposed to be with Ranma, please! It's for your own good!"_

"_You're disgusting, have you no honor!Love should be between a man and a woman!"_

"_How disappointing, you have such promise as Ranma's rival, child." _

It was that Ryoga appeared back to the colorless Nermia. Thankfully he was back into his human form, safe from the ridicule of all those people in his life. Ryoga was clenching the sides of his head as he stared down at the pavement beneath him. His heart thumped a mile a minute as he tried to keep those words from replaying in his mind, which was ultimately driving him over the edge.

"Ryoga..." Akane's voice rang throughout his ears as she swiftly turned in her direction. She like much of this world was devoid of color as she reached her hand out to him, but she seemed to be standing under an umbrella. Akane's head was aimed downwards as her hand was extended out for him to take.

As if on que, the dismal world began raining as if crying out to him, trying to tell him something. There was something about this that he couldn't make out, how had she known that she'd need an umbrella? Could this world be losing symbolic meaning? No... it meant something but Ryoga was having a hard time deciphering it.

Ryoga was now covered in rain as he examined the former angel of his life, a longing look on his face as the rain continued to pour onto him. With a glazed look in his eyes he was unable to meet her request, there was too much between them now. "I-I... Akane... you..." he stopped, gritting his teeth in anguish as forced his meaningless feelings down.

"Ryoga..." Another voice came, or rather two voices appeared as Ranma called to Ryoga from behind him. The alleyway became silent once again, nothing but the sound of rain being the only sound in Ryoga's world.

Slowly looking over his shoulder, Ryoga came across Ranma. Though instead of being only one of his forms, both stood in the rain, their hands extended to him as their hair became damp and covered their eyes as they couldn't meet his eyes. Though both Ranma's looks appeared to be strained, seeming as though they were in pain if he didn't accept their hands.

Ryoga looked back to Akane, then back to Ranma and continued to do so, until he found the answer he was searching for. His mind went through every single thought he had ever had about Ranma and Akane, Akane's being the reason as to why he took so long to decide.

Ryoga's body acted on it's own and carried him to his chosen interest, Ryoga stopped in front of Ranma and placed his hand's on the red head's shoulder.

She looked up to him, her blue eyes the only other color in the world. She stared into his eyes, uncertain of what Ryoga was going to say to her.

Ranma's boy form faded into Ranma's girl form; leaving only one perplexed red headed girl. "Ryoga...?" dream Ranma asked.

Ryoga softened his gaze and smiled softly before leaning in. "Ranma Saotome, I love you..." he confessed before pressing his lips to the red head, the rain continuing to go on as they seemed to enjoy each other's company.

The gray Akane vanished as he left Ryoga to his revelation.

* * *

><p><strong>End Dream Sequence<strong>

Ryoga shot up from the bed and panted deeply as sweat dripped from his brow, panting deeply as inspected his surroundings.

_'D-Damn it... I... I love Ranma...' _Ryoga thought, placing one of his hands over his eyes, shutting his eyes as a few tears went down his face, knowing his dream was no where within his reach. Not only that he fell for the person he claimed to have always hated. The world was cruel to him, leaving him to another person he knew could never love him.

Or perhaps his prediction was far too early to be said.

* * *

><p><em>Dang! That made me wanna' cry a little... honestly I was looking forward to this and wanted to make sure I could write it out good enough. Though I got it to what I wanted, it doesn't mean everyone will agree with me and I know that.<em>

_I'm sorry for the really late chapter! If it helps... I'd like to thank everyone for their support for this fic and hope this story hasn't died to those waiting for an update._

_The review bar for this will over 180 reviews if this reaches over 200 reviews I'll make a oneshot to the person who made the 200th review! But if they're anon then the runner up account having person. Not only that I'll continue working on the next chapter._

_Remember you're not obligated to reach this review bar and you can choose to review if you want. I'm completely okay with not reaching the said amount._

_And I was so happy today, because now I have, Skyrim! XD_

_Foxes from the Foxes~_

_DaisukiFox~_


	7. Chapter 7

_Hello! Wow, it has been awhile. I should let everyone know that this story isn't exactly easy. It seems like everyone is expecting me to pop out a new chapter every few weeks or so. Bottom line is... it's not that easy, there are many factors I have to do.  
><em>

_1)Plot : The plot is sometimes very difficult to work out and some scenes can be quite a hassle. 2) Editing, even though I don't do as well as everyone wants me to, since I'm no Zeptha or Ranfan. 3) My mood, which is sometimes more than just reviews per chapters._

_It's like playing a game that I can't win, since for the entire time that I've been writing, there's been a love/hate thing between me and my readers. Many writers in my position might have already quit way before, why am I still around? I don't know to be honest, maybe I wanna' see my story finished just as much as everyone else does._

_Disclaimer: I do not own Ranma ½, Ranma ½ is owned by Rumiko Takahashi and Viz Media, please support the official release._

* * *

><p><strong>Kodachi &amp; Ukyo<strong>

Ukyo was now pinned with the job of somehow convincing Kodachi to team up with her, but, that proved to be quite the difficult challenge. Too many things had to be factored in for her and at this moment trying to explain it in a way that Kodachi would understand was simply too much for the simple chief, she was a cook, not a politician, lying in an expert manner wasn't her thing. _'She's crazy and thinks that Ranma and his girl sides are two different people, so, why would she care about something involving Ranma as a girl?' _Ukyo thought.

Far too much time had gone by and Kodachi had much better things to do than wait around for some girl to stop trying to say something, only to retract it and returning to a thinking posture; honestly, Ukyo was acting like a school child who had no idea how to answer a math question.

"If you have nothing to say then I do believe this is a waste of time," Kodachi stated, finding the conversation rather droll and meaningless.

Ukyo, having no real other way to explain the situation, desperately sought any piece of information in her mind to convince the blue haired she-devil. Though she was thinking intensively, she found no way to deal with such a conundrum but a thought occurred to her, this wasn't the way she should be going on about dealing with Kodachi, she wasn't a sane and rational person, she needed to use logic within Kodachi's own means and if she was anything like her brother; which had been proven time and time again, she was. Then she had the perfect plan to draw her in.

"Oh, you're right... you wouldn't want to save your darling Ranma from falling into someone else's hands," Ukyo stated, smiling in a sly manner before doing an about face and shrugging. "Guess it just wasn't in the cards for him to fall for you, now, was it?" Ukyo smirked, knowing that the insane gymnast would take the bite.

Kodachi came to an abrupt stop and did a complete one-eighty before stopping in front of the cocky chief. "I my dare lower class chief! Am in a league all my own, when it comes to the matters of my darling Ranma's heart!" she exclaimed, her eye twitching as she placed her hands on her hips, irritated to think that this commoner would even have the audacity to call her out on her romantic affairs.

"Such determination... that could probably save Ranma from what's happening," Ukyo replied, hoping to peak Kodachi's interest.

There was a pause as Kodachi took a few seconds to relieve the steam that coursed through her before deciding to hear her out. It involved her Ranma, she would do what was necessary. "Continue."

"That's what I like to hear," Ukyo smiled and she also turned around. "Ranma has been cursed to look like that red headed girl you've come to know," she said, but was interrupted before she could go any further.

"That makes little if no sense at all..." Kodachi stated.

"Really? Think about it... how many magical objects and people have you come across since Ranma got here?" Ukyo argued, knowing that she had some ground to stand on.

The evidence was overwhelming, now that she thought about it. She immediately went on the defensive, believing her very presence must have been strong enough to break the control; it was cheesy but that's what she viewed as her self worth. "Oh, if that is the case then I would simply present myself to my cursed darling and that should do the trick, I am rather alluring, one could say alluring enough to break any binding curse," Kodachi responded, batting her hand as she closed her eyes and looked away, her smug opinion of herself obviously trying to keep her own ego safe.

Ukyo rolled her eyes and shook her head, but, she needed the help and two heads were better than one, even if that other was probably criminally insane and could possibly be charged for using poisons or paralyzing agents. "Well, Ranma is under something strong enough to keep from running into your arms," Ukyo stated, averting her head from Kodachi and making fake gagging movements with her hand to her mouth.

The daughter to the Kuno manor remained still for a moment, dropping her head she pondered the proposal but before she could confirm anything she had to ask. "If Ranma is forced to look like the red headed girl then where is the 'real' red headed hussy? And is there any possible way to bring Ranma's former glory back?"

Ukyo yet again found herself in a moment where she needed to use creative thinking. "Uh... she's doing all this! Y-yeah! She's forcing Ranma to fall for Ryoga...uh..." at this point Ukyo was even having a hard time trying to believe herself. "Uh... Ranma can be a guy again when you pour hot water on him, but, the moment he touches some cold water again, he changes to that pig tailed girl."

Kodachi instantly seeing herself as the fair and powerful heroine shot her arm out and clenched her fist out in front of her. "She wishes to torment me, only to spite me for my many wonderful attributes, so, she has concocted this fiendish plan to weaken my will! I 'shall' not allow some perverse fool to take what's rightfully mine!"

Ukyo found herself staring at Kodachi, slapping her forehead hard enough to leave a print, she decided to go with it. "Uh... yeah, sure, whatever... so, we should like, team up to stop Ranma and Ryoga from getting any closer, then go after the red headed girl?"

Kodachi stopped and turned to Ukyo, blinking for a moment before chuckling and placing her hand over her mouth, finding the team up proposal ridiculous. "My, my... someone has a rather high opinion of themselves, unfortunately I will not be needing your services, I am the fair heroine here and there is no room for bit parts my awkwardly dressed companion," Kodachi stated before turning away and jumping off to the roof tops, uttering her annoying laughter as she did so.

Ukyo stared in disbelief, to think that she actually wanted the help of that self centered, arrogant, manic. Not only that she had also been told off by that manic. "You nut-job!" Ukyo exclaimed, shouting as hard as she could.

* * *

><p><strong>Ranma &amp; Akane<strong>

Ranma felt a rampant thumping in his chest when confronted by Akane's feelings. Although he was fully aware of them from before, he wasn't ready to tackle such a fragile subject. Akane was practically the very definition of emotionally fragile, so, chances were that the outcome of whatever he said could only back fire; especially since he wasn't sure what to make of his feelings for the blue haired girl. Why was that? Often times Ranma was in situations where he and Akane would suddenly get very close, only to have it end in a disappointment, being that the two were usually very stubborn, but, he wasn't usually this tempered when it came to romantic implications of him and Akane, was there some sort of gap?

Ranma's eyes widened when an image of Ryoga surfaced to his mind. "Akane... nows not the time fer dat," Ranma scowled, looking away from his supposed love interest.

Akane held her hands close to her figure, she lowered his head and averted her eyes, only to try and make contact again but only failing to do so when she lost the courage to continue. Her confidence had been pushed forward by the moment, but, when she was told that now wasn't the time for her feelings all of her determination faded from whence it came. The youngest Tendo sister forced herself to continue.

"Ranma... I think now is the time," she blushed, noticing Ranma cringe she knew this wasn't going to be easy. Did Ranma not believe it was the time for them to have a heart to heart? From the looks of it seemed as though Ranma was stalling, which, she'd be right in assuming by the hurried expression on Ranma's face; obviously trying to will his legs and arms to move him away from her.

"Why won't you take me seriously, Ranma?" Akane demanded, now feeling tears well up in her eyes. She knew that she told herself to wait, but, there was still those feelings of doubt.

"I ain't doing that!" Ranma barked, still refusing to make eye contact with the blue haired temptress. There were many things Ranma wanted to respond with, but, this was a delicate matter and saying something without thinking could very well spell out the end for him and his father staying at the Tendo household. Though there were many things he thought would have gotten him kicked out of the Tendo dojo, but, this was about real love and affection for her, if he broke her heart, what would become of them?

After hearing his retort, Akane gave Ranma a calculating look before sighing. Here they were again, one of them trying to be more tender and the other refusing to address the subject at hand. This tug of war needed a resolution or they could very well be doing this into their thirties.

"R-Ranma! I-I'm not going to let this go!" Akane exclaimed, finding the prospect of dragging out their romantic interest, unbearable. Now it came down to this, she was going to exert her feelings, even if it did make her chest tighten and feel as though a million butterflies decided to have a frenzy in her stomach.

Ranma's legs found more force but not enough to carry him out of this situation. It was like being caught by a dog catcher and forced to listen about the wonders and joys of being in the pound, one might think that Ranma was willing to claw his way out of this moment, had he the strength to do so.

"Ranma... I-I-I..." Akane began but found her will fading, "I-I-"

* * *

><p><strong>Nabiki<strong>

The brown haired middle child was seated in her room; on her bed. She looked through her schedule for the next school week. There were many victims for her to score some yen off of; it was always better to get a head start. That did however lead her back to her thoughts on her most important bet. Nabiki figured she would allow Ranma and Ryoga more time to get accustomed to their romantic feelings. What better way to get two people together than to constantly have them around one another? It was as if everything was falling into place. Though instead of trying to push them together, she figured with Happosai's addiction to Poke'mon, she could force them into awkward situations, she might not have been around for those awkward arguments that were bound to ensue, like, for example the one were Ranma, Ryoga and Akane had earlier.

Nabiki couldn't help but enjoy the fruits of her labor, conflict lead to emotions and when emotions are peaked, words are said, when words are said; she could gain from those. Her method of getting people together should have been a form of art, at least, that's what she felt.

"Hm..." Nabiki hummed as she laid on her bed, tapping her journal with her pen while one leg held up in the air and swaying from side to side as her other leg was crossed just behind her knee. "I wonder who else I can pester while those three have their little spats..."

It was then that the middle sister was sure she heard someone laughing, it took a moment for her to realize that it was Kodachi's escaped from a mental institute laugh, that, or her usual return laugh, she wasn't sure but she knew this could only spell chaos. "Ugh..." Nabiki groaned, lowering her head and hanging her mouth open in anime like style.

**Kodachi**

Kodachi dashed across the roof tops of Nerima, laughing hysterically as she did so. There was a certain thrill when it came to fighting for those most important to her, that or just plain worthy enough to be within her presence. There was one man good enough for Kodachi and that was Ranma Saotome, she just needed to remind those foolish enough to touch her property to back off before she showed them her gracious martial arts rhythmic gymnastics techniques.

Coming up to her destination like a shark stalking it's prey, she jumped over the fence and landed in the Tendo background, she crouched upon landing and scanned the area, a smug look adorned her face as she rose to her feet, she was about to announce her presence, until she heard Akane's voice.

"_Ranma... I-I-I...I-I..."_

Jumping into insane stalker mode, or rather her version of what can be viewed as an acceptable lovers image. Kodachi barged into the dojo by slamming the door open. "Ranma! Do not fall for her half witted charm!"

Akane darted her head from Ranma to Kodachi and blushed profusely before averting her eyes from the crazy gymnast. "What're you doing here?" she asked.

Ranma on other hand felt relieved to see the crazy lune, just the very thought of discussing his feelings for Akane made him quake, but, he was hoping that Kodachi would begin bickering enough to ruin the moment and have Akane send the deranged Kuno member flying into the atmosphere. That or have his legs recover enough to deal with Kodachi or run away from the discussion at hand. "K-Kodachi?"

"Oh, my darest Ranma!" Kodachi swooned, clapping her hands together before flashing over to Ranma's side and taking his hands into her, nuzzling her cheek into his hands. "How I've longed for your touch..."

Ranma of course felt as though her affection was like driving pin needles into his hands, but, then again the same effect might have occurred had Ranma not been in such a fragile state. "L-Let go!"

Akane felt vein threaten to pop from her forehead, "Don't ignore me!" she exclaimed, towering over Kodachi and glaring her down. Though she was giving her most threatening death glare, she noticed even then, Kodachi didn't seem bothered by he intimidation tactics. In fact she seemed to be treating her like a pest, which only served to further enrage Akane.

"Am I to assume you wish to fight for my beloved?" Kodachi asked, now entering her smug mode, which was probably the same as regular Kodachi.

"No! I'm going to fight you because you're not welcomed here!" Akane shouted back.

"You protest too much... that will be your downfall," Kodachi stated before jumping back and gaining some distance between her and Akane, reaching behind her and pulling out gymnastics ribbon. _'I was right to have taken a few classes in hidden weapons gymnastics,'_ Kodachi thought.

Akane rose to her feet and readied herself, this wouldn't be over as quickly as she would like but she was sure in the end that she would triumph. Kodachi's skills were much like Kuno's, but, perhaps weaker in some sense. "Come at me!"

Kodachi pulled on her ribbon before charging in and whipping at the blue haired girl, most of her attacks didn't land but she could tell that Akane was having a difficult time trying to counter. That was only working towards her advantage, there was only so much one could dodge before slipping.

"Wha!" Akane screamed, avoiding a jab from Kodachi's ribbon which could have resulted in death had she not dodged the ribbon, her head would have been in place of the crater that Kodachi's attack left on the wall. Akane looked away from Kodahi for a brief second to see that jagged pieces of wood fell from the impact point. _'Should have known...' _

"Byahahaha!" Kodachi cackled as she placed the back of her palm to her hand.

Ranma took a deep breath and managed to focus his body enough to get on his hands and knees, the experience was a little more than agonizing, but, when dealing with the psychopaths at Nerima, one tends to grow a strong resilience to pain. _'Just got-gotta' sneak out, come on Saotome...' _Ranma thought as he forced himself to continue. "Ah!" Ranma screamed as his legs gave out. _'Damn it Ryoga... way to screw me over...' _

Akane and Kodachi continued their song and dance, mostly Akane dodging and weaving Kodachi's ribbon jabs; completely oblivious to the fact that Ranma was trying to escape. From the side view of their battle, one would mistake Kodachi's quick attacks as blurs that, giving the appearance of moving so fast that her attacks appeared to have afterimages, but, the real case was that she was simply using a trick that showed that she was using more than one ribbon.

That made Akane's task of defeating her all the more difficult, but, she would persevere, this was a battle she would give her all. "Enough!" Akane exclaimed, reaching for one of the ribbons and tugging it forward, pulling it while being mindful of her opponents other weapons.

Kodachi shrieked when Akane pulled one of her ribbons, revealing her trick. "Ah, think we're clever, huh?" she smirked, having dropped all her spare ribbons in the process. "No matter... one or thousand, your skills fall far behind mine."

Akane narrowed her eyes to a dangerous degree, if there was anything she hated it was being mocked about her skills. Ranma had a certain pass to do so and even then she enforced some punishment if he went too far. "Just fight me!" Akane grunted, now taking her offense stance, letting her rage take over she commenced her onslaught of fierce punches.

Kodachi countered most of her attacks with her limber gymnastics, continuing to mock the blue haired girl as he even sent counter attacks but they did little to stop the rampaging Tendo girl. At about seventeenth punch thrown at her, Kodachi countered Akane's attack by wrapping her ribbon around the forearm of the middle Tendo sister, but, that proved to be a costly mistake.

Akane's eyes widened when her window of opportunity came, she jolted her arm around and tightened the ribbon's hold on her forearm, using her immense strength Akane reeled in her opponent in order slam her fist directly to Kodachi's face, her face caving in ever so slightly as she was sent flying backwards to the fence, causing the fence to crackle and gave way to Kodachi's pressure.

The blue haired girl bent her knees and gasped for breath, her sore body having taken a good deal of damage. "An stay down..." Akane stated, before standing straight up and wiping the sweat from her brow. Using her mallet so many times in one day took it's toll on the Tendo girl.

Ranma came crawling out of the dojo, just in time to see the conclusion of Akane's and Kodachi's battle. Ranma was relieved to see that Akane could handle herself, hopefully Akane's fight took away all her will to continue their previous conversation. "Way to go, Kane'..."

"Not so fast..." Kodachi said, meekly as she rose to her feet, knees wobbling before coming to a complete stand. "The Kuno household is also known for enduring pain..." Kodachi groaned while looking around, when she looked to her side she noticed that her ribbon had been thrown nearby, within arms reach.

"Damn it..." Ranma grunted, he may have not wanted to talk to Akane about their feelings for each other but he also didn't want her battered and bruised for his sake.

Kodachi stood to her feet and tightened her hold on her ribbon, causing it to making a whipping sound. It was then that she charged at the blue haired girl, dropping her arms to the side, when she was close to the discarded ribbons she reached for one, now duel wielding ribbons.

Akane although being forced with in a difficult position raised her arms in defense. There wasn't much she could do at this very moment, since her reserve had been wasted giving Kodachi all those mallets, only to have one hit her dead center in the face; with a fist print to prove it.

Ranma urged his body to respond, but all he was able to do was enter a kneeling position, showing signs of recovery. "Don-"

Before anyone knew what was happening, a huge spatula came soaring through the air and hitting the ground in between Kodachi and Akane. Ukyo then swiftly changed the direction of her attack to Kodachi _'Missed ya' the first time, I ain't missin' this time, sugar!' _Ukyo thought.

Kodachi diverted the spatula's attack by flexing her wrist and snapping the one of the ribbons in her hands, triggering a mechanism that stiffens the ribbon to a solid pole like weapon. Kodachi quickly backed away from the chef, preparing herself for another battle. "I should have known the unworthy would challenge me!"

"Who are you calling, unworthy?" Ukyo demanded, swinging her spatula at Kodachi. The nerve of this woman, she was going to pay dearly for making her look like a fool. She had insulted her cooking, mocked her, took her knowledge of events and used it for her own gain, she was going to feel the cold end of her spatula, no matter how ridiculous her weapon was it would still do the job.

Kodachi could really only defend at the moment, the hulking mass of a weapon Ukyo was using made it hard to counter with just modified ribbons.

Akane sighed in content, there were certain perks to some manics, especially when they came to rescue you from a crazy gymnast. Akane sought some way to reach the back porch, maybe those two would defeat each other and allow her a chance to rest.

"Come on, Kodachi... hold your own, just enough for me to come and get you after." Akane mumbled with a disgruntled look.

Kodachi dodged another sideways slash before seeing that Ukyo reeled back her spatula, probably aiming to bring it down on her. Quickly she whipped her ribbons around the handle of the spatula and made it change directions, allowing Kodachi a chance to bring her foot against Ukyo's side, erupting a groan of pain from the okonomiyaki chef. That did little to keep her from attacking, regaining her wits she pulled her spatula back; releasing it from Kodachi's bind, she brought her spatula back over her shoulders and with much more force and speed attempted to bring her spatula back down on the eccentric rich girl.

Ukyo's weapon was met with Kodachi's ribbons as she crossed them in an X-formation, but they only held for an eighth of a second before giving way, breaking through her defenses and sending her skidding across the Tendo grounds, her clothes becoming tattered and torn as she did so.

Ranma noticed all this and stood to his feet now, "Stop this and get outta' here!" Ranma demanded, but, his pleas fell on deaf ears, since Ukyo hadn't even paid Ranma the slightest attention. She was his pretty fiance and she knew that sometimes she had to make decisions for her husband, since Ranma was known for making wrong choices. "Ranma, you can't make the right choices anymore and the only way to get through your thick skull is by getting rid of the competition," Ukyo exclaimed, dashing towards Akane.

Ranma gasped as he began trying to run over to Akane, though his legs thought otherwise, keeping him from advancing any further he noticed that he certainly wouldn't make it on time.

_'Damn it, not enough time!' _Akane thought as she saw that Ukyop ascended to the sky and was aiming to bring her finishing move on Akane. Though that move never came as she opened her eyes to see that Ukyo had been hit by a ball in mid-air, comically slapping her in the face and sending her into the nearby koi pond.

The splash from the koi rod shot out and sprayed over Ranma, reverting him back to his girl form and pushing him back enough to make him land on his butt or rather 'her' butt. "Argh..." Ranma groaned, her body trembling slightly as she held in her pain.

Akane looked in the direction from where the ball was thrown and saw that Kodachi had been standing on one knee, smirking as she too was trembling slightly. "You'd be wise not to ignore a Kuno..."

After the splash, Ukyo popped up from the water, her eyes as thin as pin needles, "Just stay down, ya' parasite!" digging into the koi pond Ukyo reached for her oversized spatula; going for the kill.

Planning on using her finishing move on Kodachi instead. Akane could wait, this woman needed to pay for being such a thorn on her sides.

"Take this!"

Kodachi reached for her other ribbon and quickly snapped it into a pole, planning on just dodging the spatula in mid-air and slapping Ukyo down with it, if she could pull such a feat off in her condition, but, since she was a Kuno she lacked the basic thought process to release that her plan would more than likely fail.

However, before the two could collide, a yellow blur passed between the two and reached it's arms out, grabbing the two by the wrists and completely by surprise, it began twisting them around in circles before releasing them one after the other, launching them into the sky and away from the Tendo household.

Ryoga raised his head as he came to a halt, looking into the sky to see that Ukyo and Kodachi were now nothing but mere twinkles in the sky.

"R-Ryoga?" Akane asked, "but w-when?"

"Just a few seconds before all this." Ryoga replied, then looked towards Ranma. There she was, the fantasy girl that was now realized to be Ryoga's one weakness; a false woman.

Ranma looked towards Ryoga and felt a ping of jealousy for having lost to the lost boy. Though she wasn't allowed much time to think of anything to say before Ryoga went over to her, picker her up into his arms; bridal style. "W-What're you doin'?" Ranma demanded, feeling her cheeks redden.

"You're wet and you're still in pain from my technique, you need to get inside," Ryoga explained, then looked towards Akane. "Akane, can you still walk?"

Akane watched the strange little display of affection between the two, but, throughout it all, she noticed a cold indifference emitting from Ryoga's person. It seemed as though he were crying out for attention, crying out for Ranma's attention. It made no sense to her, how could he be this way towards Ranma? It must have been her imagination, while shaking her head she heard Ryoga call to her.

"Uh... I think I can..." she replied, wobbling before eventually maintaining her balance.

It was then that Kasumi made her presence known, "My... such a mess, I suppose I should clean this." she stated, now dressed in her normal attire.

"Sorry, Kasumi..." Akane apologized, lowering her head a bit.

"It's okay, Akane. When you've had Ranma in your life long enough, you get used to all his social norms." Kasumi stated. "Ryoga, please get Ranma to her room, she needs to rest."

The entire time that Akane and Kasumi had been talking, Ryoga had kept his eyes squarely on Ranma. Ranma could only lean her head back and avoid eye contact, since the situation was making her feel awkward. It also didn't help that she was about as red as her hair color. "S-stop staring..."

Ryoga averted his eyes and now came to realize that he was staring, a tinge of red gracing his cheeks as he stood there. His heart thumping a million miles per second and not easing up anytime soon, but, he forced his cold indifference back and looked towards Ranma's room.

Ranma crossed her arms and looked to the side, feeling rather weak since she needed a guy to carry her, especially when she was in her girl form. Ranma was supposed to be the man amongst men and here she was playing the damsel in distress, life liked to mock her sometimes and honestly she was getting feud up with it. Ranma then gasped as she felt Ryoga begin to walk them over to her room, out of instinct she wrapped her arms around Ryoga's neck, leaning into him.

The hairs on Ryoga's neck stood up like pin needles, but, he managed to maintain his composure and continue.

For Ranma, now that was a different story, she noticed her actions and immediately wanted to retract her arms, but knew if she did she could possibly cause them to lose balance and make him drop her.

That little stunt Ranma pulled ended up resurfacing some of Ryoga's recent memories, the memories of a certain dream he had just had. It gave him a sense of longing, longing for that red headed girl he knew he couldn't have, to him, it felt as though the world around him had become pitch black, except for the small stage light that surrounded him and Ranma. This moment felt familiar, like all those times he had saved Akane, only to realize that even though she was right within his grasp, he could never really reach her.

Now Ranma and Ryoga were traveling up the stairs, Ryoga's face devoid of emotion as he carried the frustrated red head. Ranma honestly didn't want anything to be said, she just wanted to get back on her feet and go on about as they had been before this entire mess. Although she wanted to blame Ryoga for everything, he still ended up saving them, so, she had to be thankful.

Images of his dream continued to flash through Ryoga's mind, bombarding him over and over again like dozens of drops of water. Making him take deep and shallow breathes, shallow breathes which caught the attention of Ranma.

"Why are you outta' breath?" Ranma asked, tugging at her collar and avoiding his eyes.

When Ryoga looked to her, all he could see was those radiant blue eyes, those eyes that called out to him. Those eyes that helped to clear the skys, those eyes that made him feel weak. _'Damn it, Ryoga... calm down, she's asking you something...' _Ryoga thought, lingering on Ranma's question.

He couldn't out right say that she took his breath away, that would be too cheesy and probably keep Ranma away from her forever, as if he needed anymore pain in his life.

"I-I don't know, Saotome... just focus on your own health before you worry about mine." he countered as they now stood before Ranma door, using his foot, Ryoga quickly slide the door open and walked into the room.

"Jeez... I was just wonderin' is all..." Ranma pouted.

As they neared Ranma's futon, Ryoga gently placed her down. Feeling rather cold as Ranma slipped her arms away from his neck, "Just keep your mouth shut..." Ryoga growled.

"Wha'cha gonna' do if I don't, huh?" Ranma shot back, remaining strong, even in her weakened state.

Ryoga grit his teeth before meeting Ranma's eyes, engaging in another one of their famous stare down scenes. Ryoga relaxed his demeanor and returned to his cold expression; featureless. "I'll put it to better use then..."

"Huh?" Ranma blinked.

Before she knew it, Ryoga placed his hand to her cheek and leaned his lips over to hers, pressing his over hers. This level of intimacy was reserved for couples, yet, Ryoga was doing it to Ranma like he was meant to do this one specific task in life.

Ranma's pig tail rose up behind her, her eyes widening before she took on a stone like appearance.

Ryoga parted his lips from Ranma's for a second, only to return back to the task at hand. It only served to make Ranma even redder, since she still didn't have a response to this moment. Everything that was going on was too much for her mind to process or try to even accept as fact.

Pulling his head back, Ryoga with a timid look on his face rose to his feet and left the room. His head refusing to raise as he left the room with a serious but somewhat down casted look; the look he would have when he was depressed about Akane.

Ranma laid in a still silence, softening her facial features and turning to lay on her side. The numbing pain was the least of her worries, because now she knew that Ryoga was probably going to pull another _'kiss'_ . Why didn't it frighten her as much as it should have? Why was that all she wanted to do was lay there and think? _'Why...? Why do that you big stupid pig? Ya' don't even have an excuse for this...' _Ranma thought.

In the past there was usually some excuse for Ryoga kissing her, but, what was the excuse for this? Mulling it over, Ranma was unable to come to a conclusion, which frankly scared her.

"He can't like me... cause I'm a guy... right?" she whispered to herself as she stared at the futon beneath her.

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><p>Man that was insanely tough! I did it through... I finally did it. Sorry for the wait guys, also sorry if this doesn't live up to your demands but it's the next chapter of my little series.<p>

Now here's a joke for all of you. A parody of a scene from this chapter.

**-scene-**

As Kodachi and Ukyo flew through the sky, Kodachi held her hands down to her skirt. "Looks like we're blasting off again!"

"Meowth, that's right!" Ukyo shouted.

**-end scene-**

In other good news, since I know this is probably bugging people, I will remove the review bar. That will no longer be an issue, I still hope that everyone will continue to support me as you have been.

And blame Skyrim for my laziness too... not to mention life, room-mate and social life. Reading from Zeptha yesterday helped inspire me to write today! Now if only I could write fight scenes like Zeptha! Maybe I'll ask him for pointers! Lol

_Please Review~  
><em>

_Foxes from the Foxxy~_

_DaisukiFox~_


	8. Chapter 8

_Hey guys! Sorry for the late update I've been rather lazy and occupied with life that writing seems to play a much more minor role in my life. Though I do tend to write from time to time, that's usually with a friend and it's usually projects we'll try to put on paper or something._

_Whelp! I have to say that this has been a rather nice ride but we're coming to our conclusion everyone. That does mean I'll have to down play Kodachi's scenes but I doubt many of you are too disappointed with that._

_I'm glad reviews have been coming in nicely if somewhat extremely slow but it shows the support and probably means everyone's having fun with summer vacation, right? I know I'm having fun! Though I'm having fun I can tell you're all needing a dose of fluff from the fluff fox... and I can provide it to the best of my ability!_

_Disclaimer: Ranma ½ is owned by Rumiko Takahashi and Viz media, please support the official release. Even though it's been gone for several years... -sweat drop-_

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><p>Immediately after exiting Ranma's room, Ryoga's legs felt as weak as jelly. There was no force behind them at all and that didn't help his current situation, but it was not like he was all too concerned about that, he had just boldly gone where no Hibiki has ever gone before... did that mean he was into men? Certainly not. Ranma's male figure gave him no fuzzy feelings, it only made him want to hug his stomach stomach in pain or the same feeling that Akane's cooking would give him; both were equally as bad.<p>

Ryoga's dazed state so heavy on him that he leaned back up against Ranma's door and leaned against it for support but since his legs has lost balance he bumped up against it and continued to slide down it as his head tilted upwards, entering his blank star gazer look, Ryoga heaved a sigh as he closed his eyes. _'This feeling, it's so familiar...' _Ryoga thought, his mental voice coming out as a hollowed whisper. _'Like all those nights I kept dreaming Akane would love me... Akane...' _

"Huh..." Ryoga groaned, opening his eyes as his mouth hung open slightly. _'My heart keeps beating... I'm so nervous and I feel like I'm going to tremble at any minute.' _Ryoga's thought continued.

Little did he know that his performance had an audience of one, Nabiki Tendo. The brown haired girl stood; arms crossed. Though she was there that didn't necessarily mean that she was plotting something. _'One hell of a guy for one hell of a girl... or is it... hell of a guy for a hell of a guy?' _Nabiki pondered before shaking her head. _'It'd probably take a few decades before anything like that would even __**begin**__ to happen.'_

Nabiki shook her head before walking back into her room, there was no point in standing around for something to happen. As much as he liked the idea of Ranma and Ryoga getting together; plus the fact that she would score on an overdue bet. Nabiki was still unsure of her choice, Akane was still her sister and she cared deeply for her, even if she did usually act on every chance she could to score some yen.

She groaned before sighing and shaking her head, placing her hand on her forehead she went back to her room, planning her next scene for Ranma and Ryoga; glad that Happosai, Genma and Soun were currently at a Poke'mon convention. That gave her plenty of time to try and think of something for him.

Moving over to her closet she slide the door open and looked through the costumes she got for Ranma and Ryoga, someone had to pick them up or risk having to buy new ones. Thankful she didn't have to worry about Kasumi's outfit being wrinkled or torn in any way, but while shuffling her way through the outfits she came across a police officers outfit.

"Huh... this was the free outfit I got for buying three at that sale..." Nabiki paused as she pulled the cosplay outfit out and inspected it. "Not too shabby..." Nabiki blushed. "Even comes with a blue wig..." looked to her own brown hair and pulled at one of the ends.

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><p><strong>Ranma <strong>

Ranma was lost in her own world, so lost that she didn't even hear Ryoga's back sliding across the front of her door. Who could honestly blame her? Her plan on gaining a good friend rather than a love rival completely back fired with how Ryoga willingly kissed her... although that hadn't been the first time he had willingly kissed her, but there was usually a motive or some sort of deep confusion and denial after. Though that's what she had been expecting, Ryoga remained as silent as a monk who made a vow of silence.

Unable to reach some sort of answer Ranma placed her hand to her forehead, forcing something to make sense. Looking for any kind of scapegoat for this situation. Ranma even began kicking herself for not predicting this outcome, Ryoga was unstable and sensitive when it came to matters of interest. Where had she gone wrong? Or rather... did she do anything right to begin with? Could this mess have been avoided by simply continuing to live everyday as she did before? Did she somehow disrupt the chaos in her life and gave birth to an even greater one? No. Ryoga may not have been the most stable person but in comparison to everyone else, he was minor in comparison. At least Ryoga had honor and did whatever he could to keep it, sometimes risking his own sake for it.

Ranma, mentality at the moment was slipping very slightly as he could no longer reach any solutions or explanations for what was going on between her and Ryoga. _'What the hell is wrong with him? What the hell is wrong with me?...I'm actually thinking about trying to keep __him around, even after he...' _Ranma narrowed her eyes and felt a blush raising, clenching her fist she bared her fangs. _'Stop being such a girl Saotome! Stop talking like you're part of some trashy romance! Man up! Fight em' and make him say he's sorry!...wait... don't let em' say he's sorry, just kick his butt and move em' to the curve, no man kisses Ranma Saotome!' _Ranma thought, trying to rail herself up, but even then she could tell it was only half-hearted compared to her usual fits.

Ranma's anger slowly died down but her scowl stayed, there was a nagging feeling in her that told her not to do any of the things she was thinking about. Shortly following this Ranma began to feel a bit of panic swelling up in her chest, the kind that would be associated with anything remotely romantic between her and Akane.

The red head turned until she was on her stomach, grabbing her pillow she closed her eyes and began bashing her head against the pillow. "Get a grip! Get a grip!" she muttered every time she made contact with the cushion. _'Damn it! Why can't I just solve with this fists? That usually works, but nooo... every nut-job in this crazy district just wants to woe me! I can't fight that with martial arts!' _

Now reaching overload Ranma allowed her head to fall into the pillow, although when she did she noticed that there really wasn't any pain in her actions. She raised her head out from the pillow and blinked a couple of times, "Dang... should've focused on dat pain, probably would have kept me from thinking all those things."she commented, sighing and turning her head to the side, when she did she could see that a faint out lining of someone's back could be seen against her door's paper thin surface.

Immediately Ranma became aware of the possibility that Ryoga was probably near by and listening to her disgruntled fits. Though she wasn't quite ready to face him, but curiosity got the best of her and she reached her hand out, sliding the door open in one quick motion. "Alright! Look-" Ranma gasped as a huge panda toppled her over and landed on her. "Argh!" Ranma grunted as a sleeping panda landed on her, but what she hadn't noticed was that the Panda had changed his color scheme into a very famous and rather large Poke'mon; Snorlax.

"Get off!" Ranma demanded, trying to shove Genma(Panda Form) off of her. She noticed that he didn't seem to respond, when she looked over to his head she saw a snot bubble inflating and deflating. "Argh! Stop sleeping and get off of me!" she exclaimed, using as much strength as she could to push the large cosplaying panda off of her.

"Bwa!" Genma screamed as he was shot forward and into the wall across from Ranma's room. A large thud was heard as the panda's face was comically dragged down along with its body; which for some reason floated in midair until both the face and body were on the ground level. "Oww..." read one of Genma's sign as he raised it up.

It was then that Kasumi came up form the stairs and saw what had just occurred and to her it was a relief to see that the wall was still intact. "Thank goodness farther reinforced the walls..." she sighed before smiling and going back down stairs.

Ranma sighed but was generally happy to have avoided that conversation, she was certain it might have turned out to be a discussion she might later on come to regret. Now that she had a seconds worth of thinking, she realized that Kodachi's and Ukyo's presence meant that she certainly had a rough time on her hands, there was still four people she had to deal with. Akane, Ryoga, Ukyo and Kodachi... there was no possible way for her to deal with all of them.

"What else is new..." Ranma sighed, once again. The Saotome child knew that she was doing way too much sighing to be healthy, by the time she reached Genma's age she might in fact be as bald as him; given how crazy her life was. On top of that she was afraid to challenge a boy or address her connection to him as an issue, which should have been the very first thing she did. That's wasn't going to happen, she couldn't just abandon Ryoga, no matter how complicated things got.

Genma, finally composing himself well enough stood up and grunted, glaring at her before huffing and walking away, while scratching the side of his stomach.

Ranma in response stuck out her one tongue and dragged her eye lid down, "Nyeee...!"

After Genma left and no doubt in search of some Poke'mon food or what he'd label as Poke'mon food before stuffing his face, Ranma poked her head out from her room and checked the hallway, no one was in sight and thankfully the one she was avoiding most wasn't either. "Guess I'll just..." paused for a moment. "I don't know! Jeez!" she pouted, sitting down in her room. She wanted to leave but felt that if she went' anywhere Ryoga might just be around the corner or worse... Kodachi and Ukyo. '_Probably not those two, Ryoga threw em' hard enough to send them away for a few, don't think they'll be back until tomorrow or sumthing.' _Ranma pondered.

"Gah!" Ranma groaned, placing her hands behind her head and scuffing. "Maybe I'll just stay up here..." she stated, closing her eyes until it dawned on her, Ryoga slept in the same room as her now. "Of course..."

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><p><strong>Akane<strong>

Akane for a time sat out on the back porch, mostly to rest... after she had a good breather from her encounter she sighed and thought about the obvious interaction from Ranma and Ryoga. A part of her refused to think that Ranma could ever be interested in another boy, there hadn't even been much evidence to support this idea, besides the fact that Ranma often used her girl form to her advantage or when it came to defeating her opponents. Oddly enough this didn't ease Akane's nerves, she knew that Ranma would use her curse to her advantage but could it be that all that male teasing had some sort of effect on her or was it that Ryoga was simply special? The blue haired girl found her eyes bulging from the very idea _'T-that can't be, they're just friends...' _Akane thought as she looked over her shoulder and in the direction of Ranma's room. _'right?'_

Akane's breath became shallow at the thought, but why was that? Could it be that she was afraid that Ranma would never so much as hint at the idea of them being together? No. There had to be something left, they had to much romantic history for Ranma to just cast her aside, but must have been a heavy influence of sorts, but what? Was it possible that this all went back to the Kuno issue from before? How much had since then? Wait, could there have been any clues? In her attempt to uncover some clues Akane felt as though her mind was keeping her from doing so, since not many thoughts were passing through. In actuality she was very much aware of what had gone between Ranma and Ryoga, but at those times she forced her mental barrier to block out the thought. Her eyes widened for a second as each thought started passing by, all the recent events and strange behavior around one another.

"Now that I think about it..." Akane blushed, remembering the dejected tone in Ranma's voice when Ryoga explained that he only viewed her as a friend, not only that, Ryoga didn't seem all to convinced by his own words.

Akane's memories played out the scene and closely emphasized the dejected look on Ranma's face. It was at the very corner of her mind but it certainly happened. If only she hadn't been so blinded by her own desires she would have known sooner, after all she did on many occasions suspect Ranma of having interest in other women. Now a she had to worry about a man jumping into the fray? Even the fact that she had to acknowledge the fact that Ryoga might be a rival in love, which seemed like a completely surreal subject. Her mind just couldn't take the concept in, it was the equivalent of a Kuno and Mousse suddenly falling for one another.

"_My darling Mousse... may the heaven's and scream cry our names as we embrace in a never ending battle of passion and romance!" Day dream Kuno exclaimed as he held his darling long haired duck man._

"_Oh Kuno... the very universe couldn't express how much I love you..." Mousse was dipped romantically as Kuno stared down at him, gazing into his very soul, in a very cheesy romantic movie way._

Akane was pushed back into reality as her mind forced her to stop her horror picture playing out in her head. "Gah! Never do that again!" Akane shouted, bopping the sides of her head.

It was then that Kasumi was standing near Akane, shocked to see her talking to no one. "A-are you alright, Akane?" she asked, tilting her head to the side, holding onto a very confused smile, if only not to make Akane anymore uncomfortable than she'd already be.

"J-Just fine Kasumi! I-I-I-"

Kasumi raised a hand, stopping her. "It's okay, I didn't see anything... I just came here looking for something, I'll just go do that..." she finished, moving away from Akane's field of vision.

* * *

><p><strong>Kuno &amp; Shampoo (Continuing from their last scene)<strong>

The two mismatched lover's continued to run, while Kuno was running while Shampoo was being dragged along. Once they had gained a significant amount of distance Kuno whirled around and pressed himself up against a cement wall, accidentally bringing Shampoo into his arms.

"We have lost the foul demon which claims the name of Kuno..." his blood froze when he released what he was holding in his arms. Kuno looked down to see that Shampoo was blushing brightly with a somewhat enraged look to her face.

"Why you is-" she grunted and pushed herself back from Kuno. "No touch Shampoo! No is strong!" she screamed, turning around and pouting, small anime steam poofs coming from her head as she did so.

For Kuno it was a much different story, he believed the moment she jumped back she would attempt to thrash him for getting too close. Though was met with something much more pleasant; sadly that was Kuno's version of pleasant, considering all the other things woman had done to him. When he saw that she wasn't going to hurt him, he dropped his evil wards and stared at her.

"It seems that you have become accustomed to be enough to spare me from a merciless beating..." Kuno commented.

Shampoo turned around and glared at him, which instantly caused him to raise his wards again. Shampoo seeing this sighed and shook her head, confused as to why her anger had been going away. Under normal circumstances she would have gone over to him and taught him a lesson with her powerful amazonian abilities but instead she pouted like when Ranma would ignore her. _'Is Shampoo crazy? Why Shampoo no beat him!?' _Shampoo thought with an anger in her tone, stomping her foot down.

Kuno seeing once again that she hadn't done anything, stopped his wards but he was still very cautious. "I didn't mean to offend... I did what was needed, that foul demon maybe a vicious veil creature, but she doesn't deserve to die by your hands."

Shampoo sighed and accepted Kuno's reason, she was more angry in the fact that she had allowed herself to be taken away from a fight by Kuno. Why had she done that? Her wife mode was meant for a warrior that had earned her hand. Though she wasn't entirely opposed to the fact that Cologne wanted to make Kuno into Shampoo's perfect husband, that caused a tightening her chest, mostly because she was afraid that she was accepting Kuno, the crazy fool who chased after Ranma's girl form.

Shampoo looked over her shoulder, this time with a much gentle expression, it gave the image of confusion. What was it about this strange man that made her... so confused? Of all the things she understood about how life worked, she was being challenged by a weakling that had gotten lucky in battle. To top it off, she wasn't chasing Ranma and her great grand mother wanted him to be in the family for money... as well as making him a powerful warrior; for honor's sake.

The confused if somewhat longing look on Shampoo's face forced Kuno to look away, mostly out of fear for what might happen between them. "Perhaps we should return to your little restaurant... no doubt the mummified woman wishes to speak to me," Kuno stated, snapping Shampoo out of her stupor.

"I-is right." Shampoo nodded, taking the initiative and going ahead of the blue thunder.

Sometime had gone by as Kuno and Shampoo walked in a strange silence, neither looking to the other but still going in the same destination.

Kuno for the time was thinking about what he said before getting away from his sister, he had called himself Shampoo's future husband. That was a leap he hadn't intended to do, but he figured he must have been acting in the heat of the moment, which he was notorious for doing. The real question now was... why hadn't she brought that up? Was it that she was embarrassed about it? He couldn't very well blame her for that, but she was the violent girl with bad grammar, shouldn't she complain about that? This whole situation was eating away at him and he had no idea, all he knew was that he was honor bound to fulfill his role as Shampoo's husband. As they continued to walk, Kuno thought for a moment, could he buy himself out of this situation? Did he want to buy himself out from this situation? _'I should use the influence of my money to free myself! I shouldn't have to marry such a beau-' _Kuno thought, mouth hanging open in shock as he realized what he was about to think. '_I-I shouldn't have to endure her alluring eyes-' _this time Kuno's thought gave no pause, which scared him.

_'My word... am I... could I possibility...' _lowering his head he grit his teeth in frustration. _'c-could I be...'_

Kuno hadn't time to think further since he bumped into Shampoo who had stopped. "Wha!" Shampoo screamed as he looked over her shoulder. "Watch where you is going!" she demanded.

"Me!? It is you who has stopped!" Kuno exclaimed, pointing.

"Is because we is here, stupid!" Shampoo shouted, causing a faint blush of embarrassment on Kuno's face.

"You're here, but not for long..." Cologne stated, now standing in front of Shampoo. "We're going on a little trip... just the three of us." she smirked, making her wrinkles raise.

Inside the nekohaten the scene slowly transfers over to the preparation table Mousse had been left under, sat said duck staring out blanky, lost in a world in which there was no hope. The maddening of being caged like some sort of wild animal, even though he was technical just that, it was still very demeaning for someone who had as much pride as Mousse did... or what pride he had left after meeting Ranma and trying to claim Shampoo's love. The depths he would sink to, all just for one rude women's attention. Though he was feeling this way now, he knew there was nothing he could do about it, something about Shampoo grasped him, entangled him, sent that warm fuzzy feeling all throughout his body when he thought about her affection. Mousse was hooked and he didn't want to seek help for his love, he wanted embrace it, regardless if Shampoo completely ignored it.

The feathered martial artist cocked his head up and scanned the area for any signs of the others, but as he did so he finally saw that the nekohaten was completely vacant, devoid of anyone or any customers. Upon further inspection Mousse looked over to the exit and saw the open saw facing towards him. _'What the...' _Mousse thought as he adjusted his glasses with his wing.

On a big sheet of paper that was placed on the glass read.

"Mousse I'm using my best abilities to train the dim witted Kuno child, when you find us is when you can challenge him for Shampoo's hand, hopefully for you... she will still wish to follow the amazon code..."

Mousse's eyes widened as he quacked in fear, _'There's no way she can fall for him! I'm supposed to get here! Damn this cage!'_

Suddenly the sheet changed; no doubt a trick from Cologne. "You're a master of hidden weapons artist... now you must become an escape artist."

Mousse seeing that found some hope in his world, maybe if he could escape before Kuno was properly trained he could defeat him and then claim Shampoo as his own. _"I won't fail you Shampoo!" _he declared, which only came out as. "Quack!"

* * *

><p><strong>Ryoga<strong>

Ryoga sat on the roof of the Tendo's home, still trying to gather his thoughts but all of them returned to the red headed girl of his dreams, which pained him to realize, all the torture, all the teasing, all the humiliating jokes, defeats... how could he have fallen for her? Was the world completely insane? Or was it that he was just insane, had somewhere along the line of him helping Ranma... he fell for her, there was no denying it now and it made Ryoga feel trapped.

The wind gently blew Ryoga's hair to the side, taking in a deep breath Ryoga hugged his knees and plopped his chin against them; trying to make sense of latest events. After everything that had gone on and by how willing he was in his dream, there was no denying it. He tilted his head down casting a shadow over his eyes, gritting his teeth he bared his fangs, feeling as though his chest was bound to collapse. "W-why him... why her...?" Ryoga heaved, fighting that sickeningly sad feeling in his chest. _'E-Even if I take these feelings on... there's no way in hell I could take Ranma away from Akane... but...' _ Ryoga continued to ponder, _'What about my happiness? D-Don't I deserve to be happy? Haven't I lived a horribly lonely life!?' _Ryoga thought as he quivered from the flow of feelings going through him, like a mighty stream.

Ryoga gulped, submerging his feelings down within his consciousness. "Damn it... I'd be lucky enough to still be Ranma's friend after this..." Ryoga mumbled, now feeling his sorrow take place, making himself heavy with depression ki.

* * *

><p><strong>Genma, Soun and Happosai<strong>

The three elders now sat in the living room of the Tendo home, looking through their various items. Happosai looking more closely at the pictures he had in hand, a small blush flashing against his dried up muzzle. "Those girls were so nice..." he chuckled as he saw the pictures of him being hugged by many woman dressed in Poke'mon character outfits. "Being small enough to be a poke'mon sure has it's benefits... not to mention all the panties I snagged..." smirked as he pulled out his second bag, seemingly out of no where.

Genma and Soun looked towards their master in disgust, glad that he at least only stole from the women seventeen and up. For some reason his target age, "Your perverted actions aside... it was certainly something to be fond of, I'm quite proud to know that we aren't the only older fans of the series!" Soun commented, looking through his new collectible cards he recently came across.

Genma smiled and raised his sign as he held up his gameboy with his other hand. "And I almost won that tournament!" Genma's sign read.

"I'm aware dear friend, I'm sorry you lost to that eight year old..." Soun stated, lowering his head and placing his hand on his chest, tears flowing from his face.

All of them suddenly became silent as they copied Soun's posture, "Those poke'mon of yours fought bravely Genma..." Happosai stated.

"All an all... this was quite the adventure, not to mention the free outfit change Genma received!" Soun exclaimed, smiling to his old friend, since he had changed his Pikachu colors into a Snorlax's colors.

"I'm Snorlax!" Genma's sign said, as he smiled.

All of them shared a hearty laugh as they leaned back with their heads arched back. That didn't last very long as they heard some stomping from the stairs. None of them got the chance to comment when Ranma; now in male form. Went storming past them, slamming the sliding doors open and moving over to the back porch.

The three poke'mon fans turned in wonderment as they sat up and followed him out, wondering where he was going, now actually paying attention to what was going on. Following closely behind them was Kasumi, who was also intrigued with why the three older males where following Ranma.

"Please tell me nothing bad is going to happen..." Kasumi said, feeling a sweat drop come from her head.

Akane who had still be sitting on the back porch looked over her shoulder to see Ranma, "Ranma! Are you-" she didn't get to finish as she saw Ranma running over to the fence, only to turn around in a mad dash and before leaping into the air and onto the rooftop

"Ryoga!" Ranma shouted, an enraged look on his face as he landed in a kneeling position, raising his head he turned to look over to the lost boy.

Ryoga only half paying attention to his surroundings barely noticed Ranma until he landed, which immediately got him to stand up with shock. "R-Ranma!?"

Not giving him enough time to answer Ranma began his assault and attempted to hit the fang toothed boy, aiming to knock some sense into him. Although he was aiming that hadn't stopped Ryoga from dodging, seeing that he did so, Ranma continued his assault, noticing that his rage was making his attacks a bit sloppy. "Hold still!"

"W-wait! Let me explain!" Ryoga shouted, evading another fist to the face by shifting his head to the side. All sense escaped Ranma, now he was on a blood rage, after Ryoga's blood. That's exactly what he needed, he needed to fear the one he fell for.

"Why should I!?" Ranma demanded, continuing. It was then that he tried to kick Ryoga in the face, only to see Ryoga duck and continue to go on the defensive. "Stop running ya' coward and fight me back!" Ranma demanded. Feeling like he was being mocked by Ryoga's constant dodging, which made him realize that he was more sluggish than he usually was. _'Damn... even when I'm angry I'm still faster than the pig-brain...' _Ranma thought, then realized that he was still suffering from the effects of Ryoga's, Lion's Breaking Point. _'Guess I gotta' fight em' with a handicap!' _

When the quick stand still happened Ryoga took this as a the time to mentally prepare him for this fight, if he wanted to defeat Ranma he knew that he would need complete concentration. "Fine Saotome! I'll make you listen!" Ryoga declared, moving into the battle and running in, calling out a battle cry.

During their exchange of fists the other occupants of the Tendo residence made their way into the backyard, watching at a distance. Most of them deeply confused, except for Nabiki of course. Each of them looked to one another hoping to find an answer from one another, Nabiki pretending not to have a clue while the others tried to make sense out of this fight. It was sudden, random and strange... well... under current circumstances, weeks back this would have been the most normal thing in the world.

"Why are those two fellers fightin'? Ain't they friends now?" Happosai asked.

"Maybe this is how they express their friendship... I know me and Saotome have had quarrels here and there..." Soun commented.

"True." Genma's sign read as he watched the scene play out. The members of the house continued to watch, feeling that things would return to the norm thanks to a blunder caused from Ryoga.

Throughout the entire fight the two dodged, blocked and kicked whenever possible but both seemed entirely focused now and couldn't find an opening in either defenses, which only served to further drive Ranma's temper over the hill, causing his to vent out his frustration in the form of complaints, coupled with fists.

"I try to be your friend!" Ranma shouted, trying to jab Ryoga with his elbow, but ultimately ends up missing. "I let you into my home!" shouts with knee kick.

Ryoga quickly reacting to Ranma's moves counters Ranma's knee kick with a knee kick of his own. "I'm try-"

"Shut up!" Ranma continues, "I defend you and keep your secrets! Call you my rival! And when I think you have some honor in ya' you go and do something like this!" Ranma exclaims, blushing as the thought of Ryoga's lips flashing into his mind. It was then that his mind reminded him that he had brought this on himself, but his anger forced him to push that thought behind. "Argh!" he grunted.

Ryoga jumped away from a leg sweep and raised his hand, reaching for his bandanna and pulling out one of the many copies, channeling ki into it he made the bandanna as sharp as a blade, which caught Ranma by surprise and made him jump back but because he was still enraged while still having a handicap he got the front of his shirt, slashing it and leaving a long mark across his torso.

"Enough cheap tricks!" Ranma shouted as he jumped back but then as his feet touched the ground launched himself forward to spin kick the bandanna out of Ryoga's hand, making the lost boy recoil as he groaned and tried to nurse his injured hand, taking that as his opening Ranma twirled around and forced his body to do a chestnut fist.

"Argh!" Ryoga cried, taking in a few blows before crossing his arms across his chest. The force of Ranma's blows were so intense that they pushed Ryoga back.

This wasn't good, Ryoga was on the defensive and Ranma knew that. Though he was taking in the hits as best as he could that only served to only further his ambitions, he couldn't get his point across if he appeared weak to Ranma.

"Got'cha!"

Ranma now seeing his stance went to do a chestnut fist centered around Ryoga's gut, but before he could do so he saw Ryoga scream and drop his defense to shoot himself forward, sticking his finger out Ryoga caught Ranma by surprise, slamming his index finger into Ranma's breaking point. The very same breaking point that had been shot by Ryoga's, Lion's Breaking Point Shot.

"Argh!" Ranma screamed, feeling the crippling effects of the technique hinder him but instead of falling he felt himself land in someone's hands, being dipped in a romantic way. Upon opening his eyes he noticed Ryoga looking over him, a blush across his face. "W-What're you... argh..." Ranma groaned, gritting his teeth.

"Just shut that huge mouth of yours for once, Saotome..." Ryoga said, feeling awkward about holding Ranma; while in male form, like this. "It's time I said something..."

That caused Ranma to panic but for was unable to fight the scene since his body refused to respond, even if that wasn't the case he wasn't sure if he would move away from the embrace. "R-Ranma..." Ryoga gulped, eyes wide and staring into Ranma's.

It wasn't long before a stream of cold water shot out from the direction of the porch and sprayed Ranma's head, changing him back into the pig-tailed girl. That did little to stop Ranma from listening to what Ryoga had to say, which at this point almost seemed like magnetism.

"Heh... that should help..." Nabiki commented, dressed as officer Jenny from Poke'mon; while holding a water gun in her hands. That earned her a few looks from the others, well, mostly Kasumi, Akane and Happosai. Happosai because he was drooling over the fact of how attractive Nabiki looked in the officer Jenny outfit.

Soun and Genma on the other hand were wide eyed and dumbfounded by this turn of events. Entirely speechless throughout the whole romantic ending of their battle, confused as to how this entire scenario even came to be. They were so completely at a loss that they didn't say anything.

Ranma was unaffected by the spray of cold water as it dripped down from her face, the sun's rays making her already radiant face glow in the sunlight, her damp hair making her appear even more stunning than she already was. "W-what?"

"Ranma Saotome..." Ryoga whispered, "I love you..." he stated, turning his head away and gritting his teeth. Moving her down gently he turned his back to her, knowing that she probably didn't want to have him repeating the earlier lip contact. "I-I know this is going to sound crazy... but I'm joining the others who want you..." Ryoga stated before looking over his shoulder and locking eyes with Akane Tendo. "Akane, you're now my rival..."

Akane's eyes filled with shock, and completely in unison, both she and Ranma said, "W-wha?"

_**TO BE CONTINUED**_

* * *

><p>I'm really sorry for the wait guys! I promise if you give me another chance I'll update way more quickly! Things have been hectic! I'll be honest some of it involved laziness but somethings came up... I had to see the doctor about a lump, which turned out to be nothing but it still had me too worried to do anything and then a member of my family was arrested!<p>

I don't expect sympathy reviews I just want you guys to know that I still care about this fic and miss you all... my life has been a whirlwind lately and I'm sorry... I hope there's still some supporters out there for me.

Please don't let this fic die, I worked really hard on this chapter and did my very best to make up for the 7th and supposedly worst chapter ever for the series!

_Foxes from the Foxxy~_

_DaisukiFox~_


	9. Chapter 9

_Disclaimer: I do not own Ranma ½, I think that's kinda' a given by now._

_-line-_

The shock from Ryoga's statement lingered in the air as the scene's tension traveled in the air. Everyone seemed to be in a bit of a stand still, even the koi fish in the small ponds dared not move, least they set off a chain reaction from which they could not return. Soun who's mouth was still shot open from the statement, shook his head and forced composure on himself.

"That's absurd! Ryoga Hibiki! What manner of nonsense is this?!" stomped his foot down as he raised one fist into the air. "Ranma is already betrothed to my dear Akane!"

Now that something important enough had come into the picture, Soun, faster than you could say 'rice buns' returned to his father mode; instead of man child mode. "Now isn't the time for games..." he stated, suddenly removing his cosplay outfit in order to return to his normal wear.

Happosai followed shortly after, cursing underneath his breath before facing Soun. "It's my fault... the power of Ash and Misty's love transcended onto the boy and the Hibiki feller..." clenched his fist out in front of him. "I should've known..."

Genma narrowed his eyes and shot his arms out to his side, roaring much like an angry bear. He suddenly turned around and began writing on his sign, mumbling to himself in panda while he tried to express his obviously lengthy thoughts onto a single pick-it sign.

Though he intended to write on his sign, suddenly Soun ran into the dinning room and grabbed his cup of warm tea, returning in a comically quick cartoon fashion, he doused his fellow martial artist in the warm liquid, reverting him to his previous form.

Genma who had been returned to normal and drenched in tea, narrowed his eyes, standing up he looked in the direction of the Hibiki child, "We take you into our home, we feed you, we treat you like family and then you go and do something so..." paused for a moment his head looking away from Ryoga before bringing his head back to the center of everyone's attention. "vile! You're confusing Ranma and quite frankly making things worse! Ranma would never forsake his love for Akane!" he proclaimed, now pointing directly at the accused.

Soun's eyes trembled with anger, "This is completely unacceptable!"

Ryoga throughout their conversation or rather what could be more accurately portrayed as an insult feast, remained calm, completely undeterred from his proclamation of love. Whenever Ryoga acted in this manner it meant that his business would get done one way or another. "I'm tired of hearing what everyone says is right, especially when everyone around me is just a damn hypocrite..." Ryoga stated with a clenching of his fist.

Akane for her part was still dumbfounded by the way everything had turned out, everything that lead up to this moment, everything that fueled this turn of events, what was it? There was no way she'd accept this, there had to be something she could say to change his mind and make him see reason but the further she tried the more her frustration grew and she found her head dropping down, her anger building, so her first instinct was defense. "Well too bad! Because that isn't going to happen!" Akane screamed, releasing her anger her classical burst of anger.

Ryoga's eyes met Akane's and their stared into one another eyes, fierce flames of determination burning in their pupils. Ryoga knew that the battlefield wasn't one he was familiar with, in fact neither of them were really familiar with the concept of romance but that didn't hinder them from fighting for who they wanted most.

Soun and Genma noticing the sudden outburst from Akane; and for Ranma no less, smiled in her direction, happy to see that the future of their schools wouldn't go down without a fight.

What about the Saotome prodigy? What was her input in all of this? For the most part Ranma was looking off to the side, effectively staring off into space, trying to find some sort of opinion on the matter but what confused her even more was that he didn't immediately jump at any chance to push Ryoga away with some form of rejection. _'What is it? Why can't I just tell to cut this trash out! I-I'm his pal, right? T-that means that I don't want em' to leave is all, right? Right?' _Ranma thought as she felt an unpleasant feeling in her gut, as if it was telling him there was more to this than she was giving in to. To Ranma all the noise from the world was blurred, her thoughts taking up all the things she was hearing and seeing, then Akane made her claim, snapping the red head out of her trance.

Feeling like the unpleasant feeling in her stomach was growing, Ranma's eyes widened. Her attention was brought back to Ryoga as he had kneeled down, still as stoned faced as before, his hand held out to her for her to grasp.

Getting a side view of Ranma and then a side view of side of Ryoga, Ryoga thought the following. _'Take my hand Saotome, like I took __yours... please...' _Ryoga's breathing became a bit panicked as he waited for the red head's next course of action.

Akane, with baited breath waited for Ranma to make her move, hopefully she would do the right thing and set him straight.

Ranma's breath mimicked that of Ryoga's but was more apparent due to the fact that she was still shocked form the previous confession. This gesture of kindness wasn't helping, since the ambiance of the situation was deeply romantic, which even strangely enough frightened her. "I-I-I... uh..." Ranma babbled as she dragged herself backwards.

Ryoga sighed before lowering his head, the wind kicking up gently and swaying his hair. "Ranma, pl-" the Hibiki child didn't get to say his next words for Soun and Genma came in charging from the air and brought their fists down on Ryoga's location, kicking up debris and causing some major damage to the roof tiling, a cascade of lumber and roof tiling going in all directions but from the smoke. Ryoga could be seen jumping out from the explosion and eventually landing on a different part of the roof.

The smoke cleared to show Soun and Genma at the center of the attack, a gaping hole in front of them. "Not on your life!" Soun shouted, baring a scowl.

Genma with a glare to his glasses said the following. "I had high hopes for you boy, but nonsense like this needs to be stricken down..."

Nabiki felt a vein twitch in her head, here she had gotten her camera and was ready to take the picture that would seal on the deal on their bet but circumstances arose; as they usually did. _'And so the tale continues...' _Nabiki thought, begrudgingly. Though the love story between Akane, Ranma and Ryoga continued that meant that Ryoga certainly made a dent in Ranma's defenses, it was clearly evident from her lack responses, not only that Akane was now more upfront than ever. Destiny had a choice to make or rather destiny was a certain man amongst men.

Kasumi throughout this had no idea what to make of Ryoga's affection, she was open minded but even she never saw this coming, especially from Ryoga, the supposed number one Akane fanboy. _'My... I never knew this could happen, I do hope everything turns out for the best...' _she thought.

Ranma jumped back when she saw that Soun and her father jumped in the way of Ryoga's extended hand. What was she to do? Why she feeling so awkward? There was a feeling of excitement and fear running through her, which reminded her of that feeling she got when she heard Ryoga say that they'd never be anything more than friends, she reached one of her hands over to her heart and grasped it, as if pleading for it to stop feeling the way it did, her efforts were in vein, so she turned to frustration, she may have pretended to be Ryoga's fake girlfriend but that didn't mean she actually wanted to fall for him. It was then that his uncertain feelings for Akane surfaced and all their moments they shared. _'Damn it! No! No! No!' _she thought, furiously fighting them back.

Akane who had been watching the everything unfold found herself looking around with baited breath, until her attention fell back to Ranma. The pig-tailed girl seemed to be in distress, as if she was uncertain of what to make of anything. "Ranma!" Akane exclaimed.

Ryoga who was staring down Genma and Soun, heard Akane's call to the Saotome prodigy. He finally took the time to see what was happening with the red head, he was shocked to see her in such distress, that to him was enough to let him know that chances were, that Ranma wasn't going to give them a chance. The lost boy closed his eyes once, letting small tears flow from his eyes, _'Just the story of my life...' _

Genma and Soun saw this as something to used to their advantage, "You see what you're doing to Ranma!" Genma shouted, pointing an accusing finger towards him.

"Your actions are shameful! Now leave!" Soun added, throwing his arms out to his side.

Ryoga promptly turned around, jumping from rooftop to rooftop, trying his best to put some major distance between him and Ranma. He had no idea where he was going but that did little to keep him from trying to avoid the pain swelling up in his chest, it got to the point where he could feel his breath turn swallow.

Ranma heard what was said to Ryoga but wasn't sure what to say, because either way she'd be a disgrace for even acknowledging Ryoga's affectionate claims and she really couldn't say anything that'd hurt him. She was close to him, as close as rivals, that were also friends could be. She felt trapped in her own world, she couldn't very well say anything without risking some negative consequences, so, she choose to remain quiet. Seeing him go in the distance she lowered her head a bit and sighed, not only feeling weak but also feeling like a major jerk for not defending Ryoga, but what was she to do? Get angry and that was certainly something she could do.

"You idiots!" she exclaimed, turning to her father and Soun, suddenly regaining her backbone. "He's confused is all!" she stated, wobbling to her knees and using her hands to help her balance.

Soun and Genma were surprised that Ranma's immediate response wasn't that of gratitude but rather annoyance. The two turned to her and were soon standing before the drenched red head, this of course got her to lean back in shock, that was until the Genma placed his palm to her forehead.

"Huh... Ranma doesn't feel sick..." Genma commented.

Soun was using a Popsicle stick to lower Ranma's tongue to see if something had been indeed wrong with her, the two continued their series of tests for as long as Ranma could stand them, which wasn't much since the redhead seemed to grow more and more irritated by the second. "Get off me!" she exclaimed, suddenly punching the two into the air, the two father figures could be seen hovering in the distance. The use of her fist proved to be more than she could handle, since the feeling of pin needles spread throughout her body yet again, reminding her of the effects of Ryoga's technique.

With the pause in insanity, the red headed martial artist took to following the fang toothed boy but could only get as far as taking wide steps and screaming in her throat whenever moving forward. "Ah!" she cried, contorting her face in pain as she then proceeded to taking another step but right after she did the ladder to the roof was seen slapping onto the side of the house.

"Ranma! Stop!" Akane ordered, seeing how much Ranma was actually forcing herself.

"Butt out!" Ranma barked, turning to the blue haired girl, giving her a scowl. "He's just messed up in the head is all... I'll get em' back and talk some sense into him."

Akane upon hearing Ranma's demand to mind her own business, she paused for a moment, holding her hands close to her chest before reaffirming her position and feelings towards Ranma. "Ranma! Stop! I mean it!"

"I ain't just gonna' let him go, Akane!" Ranma shouted, meeting Akane's eyes, after a brief pause of silence Ranma turned to face in the direction of Ryoga's retreat but before he could go any further, Akane's voice called to him.

"Ranma... what does Ryoga mean to you?" she asked, casting her eyes downward, her tone suddenly changing to a more soft and fragile one, one Ranma would often affiliate with him having done something wrong and needing to apologize, except in this case it was to answer some deep personal question.

Ranma froze in place, her pig tail raising in shock as she then as still as a statue. "He's my friend is all..." Ranma stated, feeling very awkward, as well as very flushed but as much as she wanted to address this feeling she was more preoccupied by the fact that Ryoga was getting more and more lost as time went on.

Akane took notice of Ranma's not so subtle reactions and response, now taking Ryoga's attraction to her future husband, much more seriously. "Is that all?" she continued to press on for answers.

"Course that's all!" Ranma shouted, swiftly turning around, only to cause her eyes to go wide from the stinging feeling of needles surging through her body, a blush going across her face as she fell to her knees. _'Damn it! Get up you stupid body! I ain't some weak girl, now get up!' _she thought, pushing her limits in her current state.

Akane, naturally tried to reach for Ranma in order to help her up but saw that Ranma was refusing her help and instead opted to stand on her own two feet. "Why are you trying this hard? You've only ever tried this hard for..." Akane gave pause, looking to the roof tiles.

"Akane this ain't about you!" Ranma shot back, yet again letting the moment get the best of her, bringing up something that shouldn't have been relevant at, well it was starting to wear thin on Ranma's nerves. There was someone in need and all Akane could think about was herself.

Akane gave no response, there was nothing to be said, the red head was right, someone was out there and obviously in need but did that someone have to be specifically Ranma? The one Ryoga proclaimed his feelings to? This bringing about another surreal feeling from the Tendo girl. "Ranma... are you really sure about this? Aren't you the one he's..." Akane tightened her lower lip.

Another flustered feeling shot through the red head's body like a jolt of lightening, pushing it back to the best of her ability she pushed on. "He needs help Akane!" Ranma exlcaimed, turning to the blue haired girl. "Wait..." Ranma paused, her eye twitching. "How long have we been talkin'?" Ranma questioned.

Akane's own eyes widened in realization, who knows how far Ryoga had gotten up till this point, for all she knew he could already be nearing the end of the district for how long she had distracted Ranma, not intentionally but because of her doubts of Ranma's feelings towards her. "Oh..."

Ranma decided that pushing her body to the extreme was necessary and quickly turned in the direction Ryoga had run off to. Though her condition was racked with pain she remembered that losing someone was way worse than any form of body pain, even though her body screamed at her as she ran she took off, jumping from rooftop to rooftop, fighting off screams of pain while doing so.

**Kodachi & Ukyo**

The dynamically insane duo could be seen coming out from average sized pool somewhere in the district, Ukyo could be seen wringing her clothes out while Kodachi was on her back, as was the case with some people who come out from the water. Her clothes feeling weighted from the amount of moisture trapped within the fabrics, she panted for a bit before sitting up and placing her hand on her chest and coughing out chlorine filled water.

"I try to team up with you, I try and save Ranma from-" she gave pause, remembering the her claim of the pig-tailed girl and her magic over Ranma and making Ranma look like the crimson haired girl. "That evil witch..." she said, drawing her tone out as she then placed her hand over her mouth, fake coughing. "Either way, you're an idiot if you think you can free Ranma on your own!" Ukyo barked as her her inflated in a typical anime fashion before returning to normal size.

Kodachi glared at the lower class girl before sighing with her eyes closed, admitting defeat and reluctantly deciding to put her pride aside for the greater good of her Ranma. "Fine... even some of the greatest leaders in the world, need subordinates..."

The vein on Ukyo's head felt as though it was a water balloon nearing its limit, face palming the desperate chief dragged her hand across her face before slapping herself, _'This is for Ranma's sake... this is for Ranma's sake!' _she thought, squeezing the handle of her spatula. "I'm not your subordinate, I'm your partner and if you want any success of doing this, you'll remember that!" she exclaimed, slamming oversized cooking utensil in front of the Kuno child.

Kodachi cringed back and stared at where the blade like spatula had hit, it was a good thing she was quick on her feet. "Well.. I-I suppose working together does yield more results..." Kodachi commented, somewhat nervously, " fighting each other only left an opening for that brute." she said, going back to talking like a proper lunatic—err... lady.

Ukyo shock her head, the more and more she thought about it, the more and more she realized that Kodachi would only act as someone to provide distractions. "We gotta' take this differently... we can't beat Ranma or Ryoga in brute force..." Ukyo stated, putting her hand to her chin.

Kodachi's eyes widened, why hadn't she thought of this before. "Yes! We simply paralyze my darling Ranma in order to draw that red headed demon out!" she exclaimed, then clasped her hands together. "Then while we're waiting I'll try and use my beauty and charm to break this dreaded curse!"

Ukyo looked to the Kuno child and raised a brow, "You're forgetting another problem... Ryoga..."

Kodachi's only response was an oh-so-superior sounding giggle, "The more the merrier..."

Ukyo considered the possibly of Kodachi betraying her and followed with. "Y-you do have a cure for any of these, right?" she asked, somewhat nervously.

"Of course..." she smiled, proudly, "Failing to do so is extremely unladylike." she commented, but her real reason was because sometimes she would accidently inject herself with the poisons, so precautions were made for such occasions.

Ukyo sighed, she'd just have to steal some of the cures while Kodachi wasn't looking. "So, should we go to your place?"

Kodachi nodded, "Yes, we must make the prepartions, I haven't nearly enough for that brute."

Ukyo gave a nod of confirmation before reaching her hand out to Kodachi, which was promptly refused as Kodachi ignored it and rose to her feet. That got a vein twitching but Ukyo would press onward. Kodachi leaped towards the roof of the pool they landed in, Ukyo following close after.

**Ryoga**

Ryoga was forever lost in his world of sorrow, his cruel fate leading him to chase the impossible, first Akane and then Ranma. All he could do be caught up in a rampant river, escaping but only to end up in another, even more impossible river. He had proclaimed his feelings and not only that, challenged Akane for the right to stand by Ranma's side.

Being lost in his thoughts and location, he hadn't realized that he had gone in a complete circle, near the Furinkan High School. The lost boy landed on a nearby rooftop, again, his thoughts were so engrossing that he didn't even notice the high school just over his shoulder. The thing that plagued him the most was, what did Ranma feel? Why couldn't she just be honest or easier to read? Then again, him being honest about his feelings came as a shocker when he told everyone in the entire Tendo dojo and possibly the neighbors, that he loves Ranma. A thought that in the past few weeks would have caused Ryoga to blindly attack anyone who even dare suggested that such a notion. _'Why do I like Saotome...?" _Ryoga began to think, now seriously putting his thinker on the subject. _"T-There's the fact that we're martial artist... Rivals in martials, rivals for Akane or at least used to be..." _as Ryoga continued to ponder the idea it caused his shallow, _"We understand each other, when we need it, we help each other..." _blushing even further Ryoga's eyes widend as he realized that he enjoyed the fact that Ranma challenged him to improve, the thrill of besting the other, whenever his efforts paid off and whenever Ryoga would then be given purpose in training. Placing his hand to his head, he leaned on a air condition unit right behind him. _"Then we got to be friends... she stood up for me, she kept my secret, she fought for me..." _

"I love you, Ranma Saotome..." Ryoga announced to an audience of no one, except for the hidden figure behind him.

**Ranma(same time as 'Ryoga')**

Dashing through the rooftops Ranma's eye's scanned for any signs of Ryoga's pressence, eventually coming across a billboard with a huge hole in the center, a strange Ryoga shaped hole through it, that was enough for Ryoga to get a vague idea of where the lost boy was. Ranma's eyes were narrowed with what seemed to be fiery determination, not one of extreme anger but of extreme focus, which meant that a million thoughts were going through her mind. _'What's going through that mind of yours, Ryoga? Saying you' l-love me infronta' everyone!' _Ranma thought, but found herself confused by how Ryoga was effecfting her, one minute she was trying to kill him and the other she's confused because he's confused about their fake relationship? _'Gah! Why is this so weird! Only other time I've had these feelings they were for!' _Ranma's thoughts became too much, which caused her focus to shatter, her expression became one of complete and utter confusion, shouldn't she just let him run off? What was she expecting to do to him? Talk him out of loving her? Why was that so hard all of a sudden? _'Argh! Should've known he'd take it too far! Should I even bother finding the loaf!? I should just go back and pretend none of this ever happened...' _Ranma couldn't press her thoughts onward, for it seemed that a mental block wouldn't allow her and to make matters worse, there was a tightening in her chest.

The Saotome prodigy gritted her teeth in an effort to push back these feelings but before she could give her feelings further thought she came across Ryoga, leaning against an air conditioner, his back turned to her. The red headed girl clenched her first before jumping over and landing on the roof behind her, then almost as if he knew she was behind him she heard the following.

"_I love you, Ranma Saotome..." _

Again the atmosphere was changed thanks to Ryoga, Ranma shrieked in surprise, frozen in place; no man should have this power over her. Ranma's reaction actually snapped the lost boy out of his thoughts.

"Ranma!?" Ryoga exclaimed, looking over the air conditioner he was leaning on, his hand on the corner as his shocked eyes met Ranma's.

Staying frozen in place, since what Ryoga had said once again forced him to address her whole, Ryoga issue. "Ryoga... y-you're..." Ranma started, reaching her hand back to scratch the back of her head, "I mean you're!" Ranma tried to say, showing some anger behind those words, which caused the lost boy to cringe and lean back, only to make Ranma retract that approach, "J-just...I don't know!" Ranma screamed, placing her hands to her head, racking her brain for answers.

Ryoga desperately wanted to comfort the confused martial artist but knew that he was the cause for this, who could blame her really? The one you're trying to make your friend ends up saying they love you, and not only that, he challenged this person's supposed fiance. "Look... Ranma... I-I meant what I said..." Ryoga looked to the side, blushing brightly as saying this was quite the difficult thing, before now it was the circumstance that caused him to give a slip of the tongue and now this was him attempting to embrace it.

Ranma shook her head, trying to ignore what was being said to her. That forced Ryoga to speak his mind, when there was something important to say, you said it, even if it meant pushing past your mind's natural defenses.

"Listen to me, Ranma!" Ryoga shouted, closing the gap between the two and grasping Ranma's wrist, his eyes staring into her deep sapphire eyes. "I'm tired of you running away from everything!"

Ranma responded to Ryoga's anger with her own, "What do you know about it!? Huh!? You're always runnin' away!"

"Well I'm done now!" Ryoga barked back, tugging her wrist, effectively bringing her closer to him, the close contact had Ranma's feminine form pressed up against Ryoga's, strong masculine form. "You got some choices to make, Saotome..."

Ranma's eyes widened, no longer holding any hint of anger, instead replaced by a look of utter doubt. Ryoga released her hand when he came across that look, knowing that his rant had actually made an impression on her.

Ryoga stared into her eyes, "The reason I left is because I'm tired of everything in my life being a hoax..." he stated, looking to away from the red head, his eyes staring off into the distance. "And now I have something real..." he wanted to add that Ranma was that 'something real' but withheld it, for now, besides he figured it was a given now.

Ranma remained speechless, her brain lacking the proper words for the moment. "I didn't mean for this to happen..."

"Then just break my heart and be done with it, Ranma..." Ryoga sighed, not sounding defeated but ready for Ranma's response. "You're misleading everyone, just marry Akane and let everyone get over you and move on..."

"Ya' think it's that easy, huh?" Ranma asked, with her head down. "You gotta' live with hurting people, some who fought tooth and nail for you and you think it's that easy to move on?"|

"Of course it's not!" Ryoga shouted, "But it's part of life Saotome! Everyone has to deal with it! Everyone has to feel hurt, some more than others!" He exclaimed, an angered look to his face as a few tears fell from his eyes. "That's all I've been dealing with! You don't think I've had hardships, Saotome!? Huh!? Cause if you think I haven't, then you're a damn fool!"

Ranma looked to him before moving over to the lost boy, which caused Ryoga to lean back ever so slightly, unsure of where this was going. "This is what you want, right? Pig brain?" Ranma asked, in a dull tone, wrapping her arms around his neck. "Just take it..."

Ryoga turned away, gritting his teeth. "Don't toy with me!" Ryoga stated, reaching his hands to hers. "I want the real you... anything else is a just another hoax..." opting for something else he reached out to the girl, her distress was far too obvious for him to ignore, so he brought her into a warm embrace, digging his nails into her back a little.

Ranma stayed in Ryoga's arms, unsure of what to say. "Ryoga... I... I don't know..." Ranma replied, showing signs of wavering certainty.

-line-

Okay! Explaining time! When I first posted ch8, I noticed that the support was coming in at a crawl and how low the numbers were... I figured that this was it, I finally pushed my fans so far away that the support was near dead. So I pretty much dropped the story and decided that I'd stick with RP projects with friends, but then as I checked my account quite a few months later and saw that support had picked up, by a lot... by that point I had been so far gone and so far away from wanting to write that I didn't know how to take it. And figured I'd start it up again! That was easier said than done...

My brother is still in jail because they keep pushing his court date back and then I have to deal with the woman who sent him there on top of that. To some... you don't care about what's going on, you'd rather just read the story.

Anyways... for those who do care enough to read this? Thank you. So, I guess I'll just ask a question... one that is completely optional.

Should I save the Shampoo and Kuno scenes for later? This in turn will allow the romance between Ranma and Ryoga to be more of the main subject and allow the story to finish much sooner, with much less needless filler.

Anyways... I'm not going to predict how much support will come into this chapter, it has taken the longest any of my other chapters ever has. And if you're going to call me a review whore? Go on. Though know that I will finish this at some point and maybe the support will make me continue and bring my love for this story back.

_Foxes from the Foxxy~_

_DaisukiFox~_


	10. Chapter 10

_**Ryoga's Girlfriend Ch10**_

_**Disclaimer: I do not own Ranma ½, Ranma ½ is owned by Viz media and Rumiko Takahashi.**_

_Quote: Why do they tell me to follow my dreams, if dreams are all they can be..._

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><p>Trapped... that was the best way to describe how Ranma felt, not only by her concern but by her breath too. Ranma's feelings for Ryoga weren't as simple as a close friend, they were rivals in martial arts, friends and something more; maybe. Each experience they had, did it really warrant Ryoga's feelings? What of her own feelings? They certainly played a part in this equation, otherwise Ranma could simply act like Akane and be entirely obvious to his feelings; even if they were beyond obvious.<p>

Instinctively Ranma reached her hands out and wrapped them around Ryoga's waist, clinging onto him. Though she did so, there was a peculiar manner in which she did , her movements were as soft and awkward, too delicate for someone with Ranma's personality. It was then that she thought that maybe being a girl for prolonged hours at a time has effected her mind, this acted as some sort of defense mechanism for her to escape to, Ranma immediately tried to jump on the denial bandwagon. That was until it occurred to her that she had been stuck as a girl for even longer periods of time than this, in response Ranma gritted her teeth. Now she felt vulnerable to her own whims because they could very well be her true feelings for Ryoga.

Ryoga stood still as Ranma held onto him, he didn't think his impact would be this huge. Usually Ranma was more stubborn than a donkey in a staring contest, but now there was a storm brewing in her and Ryoga was uncertain as to whether the effect would positive or only bring him into the eye of the storm. "Ranma..." Ryoga began, only to have Ranma tense and squeeze him a little harder.

" Just shut up for once, kay!" Ranma exclaimed, gritting her teeth and fighting back the feelings inside of her. Though she told him to stay quiet that was in no way a means for Ryoga to stop holding her. Ranma continued to ponder her feelings on the subject of Ryoga but found herself for a lack of words. Why were her feelings so difficult to describe, much like a song with no vocals/lyrics, it spoke volumes to Ranma but said absolutely nothing to her, the only other person she could say gave her this feeling was... Akane. It was then that it occurred to her, she didn't always act on reason alone. There was things in this world that lacked logic, an unnatural attraction to someone.

This profound realization strike Ranma like a sudden jolt of lightening, her situation was that she liked Akane for reasons beyond her understanding and in this case the same applied. Though which weighted more heavily on her? Akane or Ryoga? Who's attachment towered over the over? Now Ranma returned to the issue she had hoped she could avoid; who to pick? Moving away from Ryoga, feeling thoroughly disgusted with herself for having shown such a level of weakness, she took a deep breath and met Ryoga's eyes.

The lost boy's eyes met with Ranma's, the moment now feeling thoroughly tense, Ryoga decided that now would be the time to press the matter. _'I'm tired of this feeling Saotome...' _Ryoga thought. "Make up your mind, Saotome..." Ryoga said, feeling that his odds were very slim. Factoring in Ranma's real gender, Ranma's interactions with Akane, and all the others Ranma encountered, he wondered if he had really made a dent in Ranma's feelings for him or had he merely confused her.

Either by the fates or completely by coincidence the wind picked up as Ranma stared at Ryoga, the two lost in each other's gaze. Ryoga's eyes spoke his feelings, although he appeared to be much more confident than ever, he was still uncertain of the outcome of this, to the point that he wished that Ranma would simply stomp his feelings and let him get on with his life, pain was an all too common thing to him now. _'Just do it already, Saotome!' _he thought as his eyes closed shut.

Ranma with dazed, almost trance like look, lowered her head very sligthtly.

Ryoga's eyes widened at this, that face, it was extremely familiar, panic rose in his chest as he saw that her head only dropped further. Now Ranma's image was that of the dream Ranma he had seen, minus the rain, the situation was still very bizarre.

Opinions or views on are often said to go hand-in-hand with one's emotions. Such as one's perspective on an ideal relationship, whether platonic, hatred or romantic. Though that was often the case, this was no such situation, Ryoga had changed the variables on Ranma. They had gone from dislike, to platonic and finally to romantic. Although these things did occur, they could often be mistaken for being swallow or incredibly naive but for Ranma the situation felt much more complicated than that. This pattern was also similar to the relationship between her and Akane; except that Akane would shift between all three emotions much too frequently. This was the comparison between Akane and Ryoga that Ranma noticed and it shocked her to notice this.

"Ryoga..." Ranma whispered, her hair still casting a shadow over her eyes.

Ryoga tensed at the mention of his name and at the tone Ranma said it, noticing the slight gasp at the end.

"A-akane..." she said, now stuttering.

Ryoga bit his lip upon hearing the Tendo girl's name.

The red headed girl pushed past all her defenses, ignoring all of her natural instincts and contemplated who weighted more heavily on her heart, Ryoga with all their moments together and their friend like relationship, good or bad was still a deep and very profound one but the time she's shared with Akane also meant a lot to her. All the time they had spent together, slowly getting to acknowledge one anothers feelings, those instances of weakness they had. Ranma's heart began to beat like a drum, it was a strange level of uncertainty.

"Ranma..." Ryoga began, noticing her turmoil, he reached his hand out, only to retract it upon Ranma speaking to him.

"Ryoga... I'm sorry..." Ranma responded, rising her head. Ranma stood still for a second as she became lost in Ryoga's emerald eyes, this hard to control desire growing in her as she stared, her heart yearning but knowing that if she proceeded any further she might not like the consequences of her choice. Ranma felt as though she had hit an impasse, she wanted to make her progress and leave her decision for a different time, staying forever adrift in her twilight zone, but knew that she could no longer do so for Ryoga did have a point, as much as she hated to admit; Ranma wasn't a puppet master, she couldn't pull on their strings forever.

Thinking as deeply as she possibly could she analyzed her relationship with her and Ryoga, a tingling feeling rose up from behind her head, making it difficult to think but combined with that she noted butterflies floating in her chest. Then came the various moments of intimacy they shared while being a fake couple. She recalled all the times she stumbled when getting close to Ryoga, all those moments she contemplated them being an 'object'.

"Ranma..." Ryoga said, reaching his hand out, retracting it as he saw that she was deep in thought and knew he shouldn't make a move, yet. _'Damn it Ryoga... just wait.' _he thought, closing his eyes and holding his clenched out out in front of himself.

Taking a deep breath Ranma recalled her various adventures with Akane and how often they'd lead to somewhat awkward and somewhat romantic moments, but, romantic none the less, some had even gotten far too romantic for those two to continue just viewing each other as pests, yet, they continued to. What about those times they spent worrying about one another, the small favors they would often do, those moments of laughter they shared, those moments where both would drop their guards and act like good friends. A pain rose in her chest, abandoning those moments the moment she broke Akane's heart. Could her feelings for Akane just vanish? Or would they always be a part of her? Are they a part of one another? Now Ranma felt depressed, but she had to give an answer... an answer she knew would come with a high cost.

"I'm sorry... Ryoga, I really am..." Ranma answered, sighing deeply. Before Ranma knew what was going on, she was brought into an embrace by Ryoga, his eyes now nothing but dark silhouettes.

"Huh..." Ranma blushed suddenly, feeling as flushed as anyone in a moment such as this.

Ryoga held himself back, this could at least ease his sorrow, one more moment before the end. "I'm sorry too, Saotome..." he responded before pushing her away from him, causing Ranma to fall flat on her rump. That was Ryoga's window of opportunity, which he executed in the following order, by first jumping over the end of the building, falling to the ground he positioned his hand to strike a breaking point on the ground, which triggered an explosion, scattering debris like confetti, forming a plume of dust.

Ranma shortly after falling on her butt, tried to reach for Ryoga but was thwarted by Ryoga's technique, she tried to scan the area for any signs of him but saw that he vanished. Now all that was left behind was a downtrodden Ranma and a gaping hole in the ground, one that resembled what a small meteor crater might look like.

"Damn it, Ryoga..." Ranma sighed.

Unbeknownst to Ranma, Ryoga had hidden in someone's backyard, leaning against a rather large tree, hugging his knees as his eyes remained shadowed by his hair, as well as the shadow that was cast by the tree.

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><p><strong>Akane<strong>

Shortly afterRanma's departure, Akane dreaded what might be the outcome of Ranma's return. Though she didn't want the outcome to play in Ryoga's favor, she still felt herself remembering everything she, Ranma and Ryoga went through. To throw it all away seemed too painful to imagine, and now here she was kicking herself for not actually following after Ranma. Now here she was in the dinning room, near the backyard porch, wondering when Ranma would make her return.

Despite all of these things, Akane, still felt sympathy for Ryoga. Although he was trying to win Ranma over; she still couldn't bring herself to hate him completely, she'd still lash out at him, anyone would. _'Ryoga... why Ranma? Why couldn't it be someone else... someone who doesn't mean so much...' _she thought as she closed her eyes, her hands gripped the fabric of her dress, looking for some way ease the tension. _'Why didn't I fight Ranma about going with her..? Why...? Why!?' _Akane thought, shaking her head as she fought back tears.

"Akane...?" a voice called out to her.

* * *

><p><strong>Kuno &amp; Shampoo<strong>

At first Kuno absolutely refused to train alongside the sage like teacher, Cologne. Though his argument proved to be futile with how intimidating and how well she was easily able to defeat him, claiming that his strength will always be beneath him, unless he allow her to train him. Cologne also played to Kuno's ego and tempted him with fame and women, powerful women and skilled women. That for some reason earned him a slap from the amazonian girl.

The trio and Sasuke made their way into the mountain but before they could reach those mountains they had to traverse the expansive forest before them, sounds of life echoed throughout the forest, birds flying, woodland critters hiding, butterflies fluttering by and the majestic serow could be seen raising its head as it noticed the three wayward travelers. Shampoo watched this spectacle in awe, sometimes she had in marvel at the beauty of nature. It was enough to give Disney a run for their money.

However Kuno didn't appear as awestruck as Shampoo, mostly because he had been forced to take equipment with them, as his backpack was nearly his height and just right behind him was their residential ninja, carrying a backpack of equal size, but seeing as he was much weaker than both Kuno and Shampoo, he was struggling to carry the supplies. If only to further his misery, Cologne was perched atop the large backpack, much like a bird perched on a tree.

"Why must I carry my own supplies, like the common folk!" he exclaimed.

"Stop whining child, you're only carrying half the supplies." Cologne shot back, she honestly wanted to test Kuno's strength but during their travel she noticed that Kuno had a hard time with just the one he was carrying. _'The boy's strength is much too low to compete with the others...' _she thought, narrowing her eyes_. 'It simply means his training will have to be centered around his speed and precision... been quite awhile since I've had a challenge like this...' _

Shampoo looked over her shoulder and rolled her eyes, pouting. Why was she even doing this? She wasn't certain if she really cared about Kuno. Either way she was stuck with him, _'Is so bad...?' _she thought. Although Kuno was a buffoon, she was still rather attractive on his own terms, if anything he reminded her of what she thought would be a feudal era, well, Romeo of sorts. _'N-no! Ranma is first! Kuno lucky!' _ she thought, her cheeks taking on a rosy color to them.

"Is she alright?" Kuno asked, as they saw her walking into a tree but completely unaware of the fact.

Cologne chuckled with the top of her sleeve suppressing her fits of laughter. "She's merely thinking, child..."

The others continued watch this spectacle, wondering when she would notice, but the tree gave way to the force of Shampoo's forehead, the little amazonian continued to walk, too lost in her thoughts.

_'Just like her mother, this one...' _Cologne thought as she watched. Kuno and Sasuke were like deers caught in headlights, they just watched a girl continued to walk into a tree, only to have it come crashing down faster than a lumber jack with a gas-powered chainsaw. At least Kuno, as Sasuke's knees finally collapsed under the pressure of the backpack he was forced to carry. "Oomph!"

Kuno looked towards his ninja with a blank look, "Sasuke..." he sighed.

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><p><strong>Akane<strong>

Kasumi waved somewhat meekly as she stood directly across from the youngest Tendo. The room was quieter than a room full of mutes, being as everyone had seen Ryoga's big reveal and technically coming out in a strange sort of way. Akane lowered her head and averted her eyes from her sisters somewhat awkward stare, knowing very well what she wanted to talk about or to just comfort her.

"My... today's been..." Kasumi paused, feeling a sweat drop forming on her head, "interesting." she finished, nodding her head once, forming an awkward smile soon after.

"Y-yeah..." Akane replied, feeling panic rise in her chest.

"A-Akane, you know why I'm here..." Kasumi stated, looking to the side. "Do you want to... maybe, talk about it?" she continued.

"T-there's nothing to discuss, Kasumi..." Akane replied, trying to avoid the subject.

"Akane... it could really help." Kasumi urged on.

Akane quivered her lower lip, closing her eyes as she shook her head, her hair swaying about like a mop(Hey... they can't all be good metaphors.).

Kasumi sighed, Akane wasn't getting anything past, especially with how little effort Akane was putting into it. Now her interest in Ranma was out in the open, to the entire family; objecting to someone's love confession was as clear as the difference between night and day. All of Akane's defenses had been stripped away and she was in need of a shoulder to cry on and being that it was her duty to help her sisters, she decided to take the initiative. "Akane, I don't know what's been going on between you and Ranma," she paused yet again, "and Ryoga, but whatever it was, changed what Ryoga sees in Ranma."

Akane wiped her tears with her sleeve, sniffling very slightly as she took a deep breath, regaining some of her composure. "I j-just can't believe it, after everything Ranma and I have been through..." she began to choke.

Nabiki, who could still be seen wearing the officer Jenny outfit, stared in awe as her back dragged down the wall, their conversation finally gave Nabiki the message she needed, her sister's relationship was in peril. _'There goes doing this guilt free...' _she thought with a groan, looking over her shoulder she sighed as she knew what she was about to do could only lead to heat from Akane. _'But watching those two get all cutesy does make me wonder...' _Nabiki thought; on the subject of Ranma and Ryoga.

"I think you need to be clued in, for once..." Nabiki said, while moving herself over to lean on the door frame. "Now where to start..." Nabiki began, getting nervous but attentive looks from the other two Tendos.

* * *

><p><strong>Ryoga, Ukyo &amp; Kodachi<strong>

The strange duo jumped from rooftop to rooftop, Kodachi snickering in her _oh-so_ stuck up way. Ukyo on the other hand was losing her patience with her, _'There's only so much gloating I can take...' _Ukyo thought as she looked towards Kodachi.

"We're not even there yet, so would you shut you yap!?" she shouted.

"My, my... you should be just as ecstatic as I am, we're about to defeat that harlot!" she laughed, placing the back of her hand over her mouth.

Ukyo rolled her eyes but as Kodachi was distracted she reached for the antidote she took from Kodachi's room. The okonomiyaki chef was indeed ready for any signs of betrayal, this was the battlefield of love and if here time in Nerima has taught her anything, it was never to trust the Kuno family; mostly because they were insane.

"Once we've disposed of the stooge, we move onto that cheap harlot and once we're done with her, my darling Ranma shall bask in my ever loving presence!" Kodachi exclaimed, announcing her plan, much like a comic book villain. That earned another roll of Ukyo's eyes, if there was anything she'd miss about this partnership, is the time she could have spent not teaming up with Kodachi.

The two were closing in on their target, sorta, they had only started jumping five minutes ago. Their relatively peaceful trip to take down Ryoga had become complicated the moment Ukyo's eyes caught wind of Ryoga dashing on by, a clearly distraught look on his face as he was clearly running with some goal in mind.

"Hey! That's Ryoga!" Ukyo exclaimed while in mid-air, she immediately shifted her position in the air and used her spatula to create wind resistance, effectively allowing her to turn around the moment she landed on the first rooftop. Kodachi was much slower to react but did so with much less grace than Ukyo, first landing on the rooftop only to crash into someone's air conditioning unit.

"Oomph!" she groaned as she recovered from her head trauma; much like most Kuno family members.

The chef rolled her eyes and leap onto the rooftops that followed the same path Ryoga was taking. Although something must have been up if Ryoga was using the normal pathways, this was something she'd have to find out once she wiped Ryoga out of the equation and although she had considered Ryoga a comrade at one point, this was Nerima and non-romantic things were trivial.

* * *

><p><strong>Genma &amp; Soun<strong>

The supposed heads of the Tendo household, walked with slumped shoulder and auras of depression, as if to make matters worse they hadn't succeeded in pummeling Ryoga for threatening the stability of their arranged marriage... er, joining of the two schools.

"We failed didn't we... Saotome...?" Soun inquired.

"Quit reminding me, Tendo..." Genma replied, begrudgingly, hearing about his failures wasn't something Genma liked, especially when it came to a man hitting on his son, _'I know m'boy won't give into temptation, even if they make a good Ash and Misty cosplay... a really good Ash an Misty...' _Genma thought, completely lost in his thoughts.

Soun looked to his friend, showing an equal amount of disappointment, he had to admit that it would have been rather entertaining to show that Ryoga boy a thing or two, but before he could day dream any further, it seems that Kami-sama himself had smiled down on them as Ryoga ran right past them, kicking up some leaves as he did so. "Saotome! Did you see that?" he shouted, gawking at the site and even more so when he saw Ukyo running on the nearby rooftops, obviously chasing after said bandanna wearing boy.

Genma continued to think, _'Bet the boy could have won some cosplay pageants...'_

"Saotome!" Soun exclaimed, slapping Genma with a hand fan, then he stomped his foot in Ryoga's direction. "The boy is getting away!"

Genma's eyes widened when some sense had been slapped into him, quickly shaking his head, he turned to Soun. "Why didn't you say something?" he asked as they joined the fray.

Sound grunted something incoherently as they started chasing Ryoga, the two kicking up a small dust cloud as they gave their all to catch up. As they were closing in on him, meaning that they could now actually see him, they noticed someone standing in Ryoga's way. Though the giant spatula behind this person's back might have been an indicator.

Like a car hitting the emergency brakes, Ryoga came to a screeching halt as he was greeted by the site of the girl he had thrown half-way across the district. "U-Ukyo?" Ryoga gasped, recalling their most recent encounter.

Kodachi landed directly opposite of Ukyo, snickering with the back of her hand to her mouth, "Hm... that was almost too eas-" Kodachi screamed before being trampled over by Genma and Soun, the two stopped exactly two feet further than Kodachi's current location, they however were still unaware of the fact that they had nearly turned Kodachi into road kill.

Both Ryoga and Ukyo stared in confusion as Genma and Soun stood before them, wondering if the two had noticed who they ran over. Though this was what anyone with a normal thought process would have seen it as, but by how proudly the two stood, one could guess that their perception on reality was border line Kuno family.

"He's paralyzed in fear Saotome!" Soun declared, shifting to a traditional martial arts stance.

"Feels like old times, doesn't it? Tendo?" Genma replied, following his friends example.

"Argh!" Kodachi shouted as she had gotten back to her feet and was now holding a tranquilizer gun. Her first target being Soun, which succeeded as the father of the Tendo's fell to the ground, eyes closed and mouth open, a small puddle of drool forming.

"Well... that's one." Kodachi stated while loading another tranquilizer dart.

Genma watched as he saw his friend fall, glaring he readied himself. The large man clenched his fists and lowered his head, the suns rays reflected onto his glasses, casting a glare over them. "Child you're a hundred years too early to-"

Kodachi could be seen cocking her dart gun and firing, she made sure to do so during Genma's gloating. If life has taught her anything, playing cheap had it's advantages, in every aspect of life.

"Wow... that's low." Ukyo commented, seeing as Kodachi didn't even allow Genma to finish his sentence, the large oaf droped like a sack of potatoes; dart sticking out from the side of his neck.

"Some prefer to call it, an opening..." Kodachi commented as she was preparing another shot for Ryoga.

Corned on both sides by Ukyo and Kodachi, Ryoga knew that running was no longer an option. He had to dodge Ukyo while avoiding Kodachi's darts, on top of that Ryoga wanted to leave the district as quickly and as humanly possible, but these two wanted to tangle with him and he had no choice to oblige or risk being harmed by them or harmed by Ranma. Despite having a heart filled with grief, Ryoga urged himself to fight, even if they were women, so with that he addressed the girl with the most problematic weapon; Kodachi.

Kodachi upon seeing him turn around she fired a dart at him, targeting his forehead. Although she intended to hit him square in the forehead, she actually ended up missing due to Ryoga's reflexes and as the dart whisked by it almost hit Ukyo's cheek.

"Ah!" Ukyo screamed.

Ryoga dodged in the nick of time, which only served to further aggravate him his already tense state. "Stop wasting my time!"

"Shut it!" Ukyo exclaimed, using this moment to get some answers out of Ryoga, while Kodachi loaded another dart. "Why did you get in the way, huh!? What happened with you and Ranma?" Ukyo probed, taking various swings, focusing primarily on speed rather than strength, as to keep Ryoga on his feet and to keep him from closing the distance between him and herself.

Ryoga blushed furiously before shaking his head, evading an attack from Ukyo as if it were nothing. "That's none of your business!" he shouted, seeing a weaknesses in her defense Ryoga charged forward, back handing Ukyo's fighting utensil once close enough and right when he was within striking distance, a dart came flying by, jumping back as quickly as possible Ryoga yet again, managed to avoid Kodachi's darts, unfortunately the same couldn't be said about Ukyo's spatula.

"Hiya!" Ukyo shouted, swinging with as much force and speed as she could muster.

A loud clanking sound was emitted from Ukyo's attack as it sent him flying towards the nearest wall. The resulting impact caused debris to kick up, meaning his body had meant a dent.

Kodachi saw this was the perfect moment to end him. "Finally Ranma's mine!" Kodachi declared, firing one more dart. A grunting sound could be heard as the dart entered the clouded wall crater, when the smoke settled Ryoga could be seen planted into the wall, the wall surviving the impact with a Ryoga shaped dent on it.

"Ranma doesn't belong to you..." Ryoga said, his voice taking on a grave tone, clearly enraged by Kodachi's statement. Upon further inspection, they noticed that Kodachi missed, Ryoga's head having shifted when he was in the smoke, but had he not moved his head, his cheek would have been hit by the dart.

"Hold still you cretin!" Kodachi demanded.

Ryoga focused on his anguished feelings, all the pain, all the humiliation, the loneliness and finally... his broken heart. The lost boy extended his arms out, clenching his fists he crossed his arms in an 'X' formation.

Ukyo's eyes widened when she realized which stance that was, but rather than panicking in fear she turned to Kodachi and shouted the following. "Load the dart gun! He's open!"

Ryoga seemed to be gathering energy and hoped he could land this on time, if not, who knows what they'd do to him. Be it death or humiliating him, he wasn't going to lose to these two, he just couldn't have it. _'Come on, just a little more...!' _Ryoga thought, gritting his teeth.

Kodachi immediately fumbled to get her tranquilizer gun ready, seeing the sight of red energy gathering in Ryoga's hand frightened her a bit, but upon reaching for a new dart she noticed that her hidden carrying case appeared to be empty, she responded to that as anyone in their situation would. "I've run out!" she screamed, shocked.

Ukyo was expecting this to be a quick process and now that Ryoga had intentionally made himself vulnerable that should make taking him down all the easier, that was until Kodachi found out they had no ammunition. "Wha!?" Ukyo shouted in shock, having very little time a beam of red energy shot towards them.

"Shishihokodan!"

The first to defend themselves was Ukyo, using her spatula to deflect some of the damage, only some as she, along with Kodachi, went crashing through the wall opposite of Ryoga, causing debris to kick up like a small but fast airplane, crash landing. Ryoga fell to his knees for a moment, having really pushed his ki to release faster than usual. _'Damn it... that was too much noise, Ranma... please, don't come...' _he thought, using all the will power he could gather, he stood up and began to run away from the attack site.

* * *

><p><strong>Akane, Kasumi &amp; Nabiki<strong>

The threesiblings sat around the dinning room table, Nabiki sitting directly across from Akane while Kasumi sat to the right side of the table, her hands held together in her lap. Nabiki continued to explain while Akane sat there and took the information slowly, hearing about how this whole thing got started and how involved the middle sister actually was, which earned a look of shock from Kasumi, expecting for Akane to lash out right there but instead Nabiki was allowed to continue.

"And that's about it in a nutshell..." Nabiki sighed, closing her eyes, surprised that Akane had taken that all so well. Though Nabiki felt that way, that wasn't exactly the case, Kasumi felt a sweat drop form on her head, Kasumi knew better than to expect a peaceful reply from Akane. "I gotta' say, Akane... I was expectin' you ta' grab the table or something."

"Akane!" Kasumi shouted, latching onto Akane's torso as to keep her from crushing Nabiki with the dinning room table.

"How could you!?" Akane demanded, trying to get a good angle on Nabiki without harming Kasumi.

Nabiki 's pupils went as thin as pin needles, her mouth hanging slightly agape. "A-Akane, come on, I was just-" she said, trying to get a word in edge-wise, but finding it difficult to focus as Akane was going to redecorate the dinning room table... over her head.

"P-please!Akane! Nabiki wouldn't survive being hit by a table!" Kasumi pleaded, keeping Akane from getting that perfect angle on Nabiki.

Nabiki dragged herself across the floor, until her back was up against the wall. "A-Akane! T-think about this!" Nabiki urged, using the hand gesture for stopping.

There was a brief pause, Akane's facial expression still very much infuriated. Nabiki knew that this chance wouldn't last long, being that Akane had a abnormal short fuse, she continued. "Think about how long this has been goin' on! Why does it take nearly losing Ranma for you to do something?" Nabiki questioned, leaning onto the wall, somewhat paralyzed in fear.

Akane lowered her head and found a blush forming on her face, being reminded how obvious her attraction to Ranma was, not that she entirely denied them but she really didn't want the word getting out in this manner. "Argh! Shut up!" she exclaimed, closing her eyes, really fighting off the temptation to bring the table down on her sister.

There was little Nabiki could do in this situation, if she moved she'd be at just the right angle for Akane to hit her, but before she could truly think about her next course of action, it seemed as the fates had granted her some more time on earth, for a second later a loud booming sound came echoing throughout the area.

Both Akane and Kasumi's eyes widened as the shock waves caused the ground to shake quite a bit. The two looked over their shoulders as they looked towards the backyard porch, seeing as the door was open they saw plumes of smoke ascending to the sky, Akane's first thought was that something happened while Ranma was going after Ryoga. _'Argh! I'm not losing my chance this time!' _Akane thought right after dropping the table, sparing Nabiki; for the moment. Akane was going to make her voice heard, even if she had to win Ranma over somehow, she couldn't allow her uncertainly to get the best of her, now was the time to use her anger confidence for something other than bashing Ranma's head with comfortable furniture.

Nabiki sighed in relief as she no longer had a table looming over her head, "This is what I get for having a conscious..." she commented to herself.

* * *

><p><strong>Ranma <strong>

Soon after Ryoga's departure Ranma was left to her thoughts, _'Is it really so bad...?' _Ranma thought with a sigh, digging her hands into her pockets she continued to walk at a brisk pace, wondering what she'd do from now on. Would she just go back to the Nermia experience? Expecting wacky situations to arise and then deal with them accordingly until one day she has to actually sit down and decide who she wants to spend her life with? Or at least she could have an attempt at the Nerima lifestyle, since Ryoga did make up some part of it. _'Hell... pig-butt kept things interesting around here.' _Ranma pondered her thought and came to realize that she wasn't even putting her all when making fun of Ryoga.

All throughout this Ranma suddenly found the concrete floor more interesting, for there was an empty feeling in her chest, a void which had no end, one of lose. It was that half-hearted feeling that keep Ranma from resorting to her usual tactics, which were to complain and act like nothing ever happened, but something did happen, Ranma was reacting to Ryoga's pure, raw emotion. As much as Ranma wanted to deny it, there was something between them, something more than _just _a strange friendship. The red-headed martial artist shook her head, she had made a choice anyways, she couldn't give up all that Akane and her had been through, how would that look? _'Be-besides, how can I know Akane ain't the one for me, if I don't even try it?' _Ranma thought, feeling shallow, but if to only further than situation Ranma began to ponder what it would be like to be romantically involved with Ryoga. Ranma knew there would be a lot of competition between them, but also something else... something more than words could describe. It was this feeling of attraction, but it wasn't sexually driven and maybe that feeling was the one responsible for all their intimate moments, whether accidental or because Ryoga would let him emotions and or instincts get the better of him. It was then that a memory returned to Ranma, one where Ranma's own words came back to bite him, the time he had found that Panda spirit that he tried to get into his father's panda form, but still ended up falling for her/him. That if she was in love with anyone, she wouldn't care what they were like. Did that also apply to his view on orientation? Wouldn't falling for Ryoga, that means her sexuality would fall under... gay? There was of course the fact that she did have a female form, but would that mean if she ended up with Ryoga she'd be living a shame of a relationship? _'You don't know that...' _a voice in the back of Ranma's head told her.

Ranma's defenses acted the moment that voice passed, _"_Come on... I-I'm a guy, and bein' a girl around him would just be me lyin' to myself, right?" Ranma mumbled to herself. "R-right?" Ranma asked no one in particular. _'Really? What if that's exactly what you want?' _Ranma's inner voice asked. With that question Ranma's mind drifted to the time their lips made contact, the feeling of bliss that came with the kiss, that made her heart tingle. _'Argh! Damn it! So what if I like him! I'll get over it! Like he said right... he'll move on, everything that happened will just-just... pass!' _Ranma thought, squinting eyes shut. The thought of never seeing Ryoga again, well, it hit Ranma hard.

Before Ranma could continue her internal debate she felt the ground beneath her began to shake. "Wha?" Ranma wondered as a familiar sound rang in her ears, the sound of Ryoga shouting his ki blast. "R-Ryoga!?" Ranma asked, looking in said direction before dashing off towards it, intent on talking to him, maybe convincing him to stay. That thought alone was enough made the red-head dash towards Ryoga, she wasn't sure what she was going to say exactly but she knew she had to get there.

The four combatants laid in defeat, Soun and Genma resting in the same spot since the tranquilizer hit them and Ukyo and Kodachi at the very end of the crater that Ryoga's attack created. Bits of stone from each wall that Ryoga's ki blast came across began to crumble as their structural foundations had been compromised.

Ranma arrived only to see the aftermath of Ryoga's wrath. It only confirmed one thing though, Ryoga was in miserable, the gaping holes spanning across several walls was a clear indication. Ranma could only imagine the levels of sorrow Ryoga must have been enduring, but what came a little flattering was that all this, was for her, which in turn made her blush slightly.

"Uh..." Genma groaned, mouth hanging open as a small pool of drool was underneath him.

Ranma looked towards her father and grabbed him by his collar. "Hey! Snap outta' it old man!" Ranma demanded, shaking him.

He could only respond with the following, "Dwha...?" he muttered as a smile spread across his face.

Ranma groaned as she dropped him, earning a groan of pain from him. _'Damn it... I was too late...' _she thought as she closed her eyes and averted her gaze from her father. Now Ranma was only staring at the ground, wondering what would have happened had she actually caught up with Ryoga. Would she go back on what she said and attempt a relationship with Ryoga or would she have resorted to her previous tactic of having him as a friend? All these things scared Ranma, because now, more than ever, she was confused and had no outlet in which to take out her frustration, so, she stood in silence.

"Ranma...?" a voice called out to her, a certain voice that belonged to a certain blue haired girl.

Ranma looked over her shoulder to see Akane, she averted her eyes, feeling guilty around her, almost as if she had cheated on her or had nearly done so. Luckily for her, Akane probably hadn't noticed that and more than likely took her sorrow for something else.

"What happened, Ranma?" Akane asked, wondering if Ranma and Ryoga had some sort of fight and the others were merely causalities, that were foolish enough to intervene.

"I don't know, Akane... I don't know..." Ranma replied, gaining an even more timid expression as she stared into space.

Akane tenderly made her way over to Ranma, almost as if she was afraid to startle her, she reached her hand out and placed it on Ranma's shoulder, the girl flinched, but only for a second before calming down. The blue haired girl figured that she'd chance it, so, she extended both of her arms out and brought Ranma into an embrace.

This came as a surprise to Ranma, but soon after she closed her eyes and returned the embrace. The two sat in relative silence, Akane for her part enjoying the fact that Ranma dropped her defenses enough to actually have a moment with her, for Ranma's part, she was mostly thinking about how she could tell Akane that she choose her, but finding no easy way to do so, she decided that perhaps being honest for once would get things rolling... and this was, her choice.

"Akane, he's gone because... he made me choose..." Ranma whispered, her voice soft and somewhat frail sounding.

"Huh?" Akane wondered, feeling a blush creep up on her face.

"I picked you, Akane..."

Akane said nothing, she found her eyes going wide, she was delighted to know that she hadn't lost her chance with Ranma. Though that was the case, she couldn't bring herself to do anything about it at the moment, they had just lost a friend, so, she opted for bringing Ranma back into the embrace.

As Ranma was being held, she stared off into space again, wondering, what could have been, had she given Ryoga his romantic opportunity.

_'Ryoga...'_

* * *

><p><strong>Ryoga<strong>

Sometime had gone by, the night stars twinkling over Ryoga's head like little flashlights. From the look of things, Ryoga hadn't stopped running for quite sometime now and was obviously doing so with reckless abandonment as his clothes appeared to be tattered and torn in various places. "Damn!" he shouted, jumping over a log, but when doing so his head brushed along a low hanging tree branch, catching his bandanna. "Damn it! Damn it! Damn it!" Ryoga cried, his voice crackling.

This was it, there was nothing binding him to Nerima, neither Akane nor Ranma wanted him. All Ryoga wanted to do was to fade into obscurity, vanish from existence so that he could no longer be plagued by his feelings. The fang toothed by was so lost in his thoughts that he hadn't noticed a second low hanging tree branch, this one was raised high enough to collide with Ryoga's chest.

"Ugh!" Ryoga screamed, not from physical pain but from the sudden shock. Using his hands the lost boy stood up on all fours and held that position for awhile, with his head held low, tears fell freely from his eyes before whispering the following line.

"_Ranma..."_

* * *

><p><strong>THIS IS NOT THE FINAL CHAPTER! Before anyone asks or assumes so. There will be a happy ending.<strong>

Who's glad this didn't take as long as the last chapter? Anyways, I have somethings to say.

Why do I do that thing where I write who's in the scene? Well, some people have been asking and some people having been treating it as though I've been calling others dumb. That's simply not the case, because that whole...

-Line-

**-Insert character name here-**

Was originally made by me to help me focus while writing it. So, a writing tool to keep me focused, but when I saw how cool it looked to keep those in, I tried it. No one really seemed to care when I did and I figured, well, I get to add a little spice to my work! Somethin all my own! So, it's not meant to insult my audience or anything. It's just there now, because... I'm used to it.

Now on a subject that has been bothering me for awhile now, some people have referred to me as their... second favorite author. As if I don't know who they're comparing me to. I am not Zeptha(Rivyn Daniel), nor will I ever be. I would just like for you guys to stop saying second favorite author, to me, that's not much a of compliment, it in fact makes me feel inferior. Some might call it whining, I call it, being polite. So, whenever you think of calling me second best... just don't. I know Zeptha(Rivyn Daniel) is better than me. The man writes 20k chapters and makes amazing fight scenes with characters. Stuff that I could only hope to do.

Now onto the subject of my fight scenes... yeah, guys, don't expect much. I'm not too good at writing scenes and to me they seem sorta' like a chore, weird considering how I'm writing in the Ranma ½ series, a fighting/romance/comedy anime. Hell, I wanted to actually ask Zeptha(Rivyn Daniel) to write one for me.

Anyways, I wanna' say. I worked really hard on this chapter and it dragged on a little longer than I thought it would have, but I guess that's more of a bonus to my readers. Lolz

And for those of you wondering... my brother was finally released from jail 3 months ago and we have been spending time together. It feels nice knowing my older brother isn't suffering. I cried so hard when he got out, my parents were ecstatic and even my dad... a man who rarely cries, actually cried for him.

Anyways, I've turned this into a personal blog and need to cut it short. Please read and review and remember...

_**FOXES FROM THE FOXXY~**_

_**DAISUKIFOX~**_


	11. Chapter 11

_**Ryoga's Girlfriend Ch11**_

_**Disclaimer: I do not own Ranma ½ series, Ranma ½ is owned by Rumiko Takahashi and Viz media.**_

Note: It's that time again. You're all probably wondering why the newest chapter took so long? This might take awhile to explain.

The thing is, I considered making chapter 10 the final chapter, given how low the support was when I posted. 11 reviews for the month of November and then a dead zone for December as the reviews had stopped coming in. I was crushed because I had taken a whole two weeks for the last chapter to finish it. Working day in and day out to get it finished only to see that there was much less support, then I considered canceling it. Though even with the much lower than average support, I still wanted to finish it but eventually life became more demanding and I got a job. Though recently the reviews have reached 22, which took a period of 7 months to reach, as compared to the 3 months that it takes to get the average 30-34 reviews I was used to. Now I'm trying to finish this because I want a conclusion, but knowing my fans are still there can help motivate me can probably help get chapters out faster.

Also another thing that bummed me out was... a lot of you don't read the ShampooXKuno parts, so that's knowing that half my efforts are being wasted as some don't care for a good part of the story. Know that before I stated that the ShampooXKuno side story can intersect with the RanmaXRyoga story? So a lot may come across this and feel that it's unnatural, but know that they have been worked on by me and they have development.

Anyways, I hope you enjoy my little story for all of those who don't hate me after my authors note.

* * *

><p><strong>Mousse<strong>

The raven haired teen began his ambitious adventure to rescue his beloved Shampoo but during his travels he was met with met difficulties, such as no one giving him the time of day to assist or completely clueless as to whoever he was talking about. Although Shampoo and Kuno had made a repetition for themselves, the people of Nermia preferred to avoid anything involving people they believed escaped from a psychiatric department. Nevertheless Mousse scoured the district for quite awhile, as he scanned the district he began to lose hope and was thus left to his thoughts. _'Shampoo... where are you!? Where could she possibly take you to train someone like Kuno?' _he thought while nearing the end of the district, distracted with his thoughts, unable to figure out the training location, he checked all the usual places in Nermia but none seemed to house the missing group but whilst jumping towards another rooftop, he came to a conclusion, one he should have obviously considered before.

"The forest!" he exclaimed right before crashing into a wall like a hacky sack. "Ugh..." Mousse groaned as he slid down the larger than usual building wall until eventually hitting the ground, his limbs extended in all directions like a police outline of a murder victim. "O-oh great... my glasses..." he groaned as they had become damaged from the sudden face to wall action that occurred only moments ago.

* * *

><p><strong>Cologne, Kuno &amp; Shampoo<strong>

Our three martial artists and bucktoothed ninja, traversed the dense forest lands, nearing their destination and once within view of their training grounds, they could easily tell that although the training grounds had a natural atmosphere to it it also had ample room for gathering wood or washing one's clothes in the stream and what a stream it was, sunlight reflected like radiant beads shimmering in the water, fish flew high into the air with no regard to their safety as no predators; other than our three travelers, were now present. The ambiance only further enhanced by the tranquil sounds emitting from the surrounding area, birds chirping in a harmonious pattern, the calming sound of running water echoing lightly as the water traveled down stream.

"We've arrived..." Cologne stated, hopping off Shampoo's backpack, only to hop around on her stick and turn to the others. "Now Tatewaki Kuno after every encounter prior to this moment, I've studied your precision, your reflexes as well as your abilities to counter..." Cologne went on, her tone matching that of someone who seemed impressed.

Kuno all the while stood with his backpack, feeling confident in his results and even more so as he saw that Cologne appeared content with him, Kuno scuffed feeling that this was much needed praise. Sasuke while in the background of Coloogne's explanation could be seen dragging his large backpack of supplies, finally arriving the buck toothed ninja collapsed from exhaustion.

"Omph!" Sasuke groaned, sighing, needing a well earned rest.

"And I determined that you're ...a fool." Cologne finished, now changing her tone to match what she actually felt. "You're brash and foolish with no commitment to the art, rather you use it for your own personal gain, which under normal circumstances I'd say could be a strength but given the level of arrogance you displayed, I'd say you're a step too far..."

Immediately after Kuno's mouth fell agape, Sasuke felt the same about the results, as his mouth was now open wide, whereas Shampoo was holding her gut and while laughing her head off, needing to take a moment to compose herself as she had also fallen for Cologne's act, expecting her to give him praise only to offer modest improvement.

"Who are you to make such a claim, you know not my true strength, hag!" Tatewaki shouted, dropping his large backpack and drawing his bokken, his hand on the hilt of his wooden instrument.

"And that child is what will delay your progress... when you've reached a wall you simply attempt to overcome it in some crazy way rather than trying to address the differences in power," Cologne said, narrowing her eyes. "You're skills, compared amongst your peers is laughable, your resolve is your only saving grace..."

Shampoo felt that Cologne's method for reaching Kuno inner 'warriror' had gotten much more cruel now, perhaps she had a strategy but as far as she could make out, this was somewhat familiar to her regular method of training.

"Have at thee!" Kuno shouted, rising his bokken above his head and aiming to bring it down on Cologne, who, quite easily, side-stepped Kuno's attack with ease, smacking the bokken out of his hand with her cane and then bashing the top end against his head, causing him to drop to his knees and grab his head.

"You allow your anger to control you but with no refinement of your skill, that anger is wasted..." Cologne stated, narrowing her eyes. "Remember that your bokken is an extension of yourself, child... although I hear you're often in contest with the others of Nermia, more commonly known for using devious methods to attain your goals as well, even willing to go as far as slaying your foes, yet you have yet to succeed in any of your attempts..." Cologne stated, all the while Kuno after nursing his wound by rubbing on it he began to listen to Cologne's words, his hands remained firmly on his head as his head was held down. _That's right, I'll start by building some confidence and then crashing it. Perhaps it will yield some results, if a barrier is brought down.' _Cologne thought to herself.

Kuno became lost in his thoughts, taking in Cologne's words and at points wishing to stand and strike her but as she went on it became more and more clear that his years of training compared to the others paled in comparison, he was nothing but a drop of water in an endless sea of ridicule, a common fly only to be swatted away the moment his presence became unnecessary. Each an every memory held some truth as time a time again he failed to win anyone's attention and even the few that did, soon came to dislike him. His mind sought denial but could no longer hold peace as each word struck him like a bolt from a crossbow.

"I yield to no one!" Kuno shouted as he stood to his feet, opting to use his bare hands towards the aged master, who would continuously side step the boy and his attempts, her movements seemed unreal as she hovered around on her feet as well as her cane, as if she were a butterfly dancing gracefully in the wind. In his frustration Kuno attempted to kick Cologne but the moment he did so, she reached out and grabbed him by his ankle, using his forward momentum to yank him forward and cause him to land on his back. "Argh!" Kuno cried, baring his fangs as he pushed through the slight head trauma.

"You have quite the demons to face..." Cologne commented as she wiped a bit of dust off her shoulder.

Shampoo gasped at how much genuine sorrow there was in Kuno's tone, this wasn't someone fighting to prove their superiority, this was someone fighting to protect their fragile state of mind. All the while Shampoo felt a level of unease while she watched, as if merely watching him in his anguish broke her heart, leading to her uncertainly wanting to comfort him. '_S-Shampoo no is...' _her thoughts began only to die down as she saw the look on his face, _'Kuno...' _Shampoo drifted as her blush deepened and the tightness in her chest grew, so much that she felt that placing her hand over her chest would ease the pain; it did not.

The tree leafs rustled from the gentle caress of the winds, leaving the shadows of said leafs to dance across Kuno's body as he laid there motionless, being reminded of his short comings with each failed attempt. His face reflected these feelings as he stared up into trees and what sunlight reached him. _'Am I but a jester...?' _Kuno thoughts came out as soft whispers, as if to hold back his emotions. _'Never have I truly beaten Saotome, nor the various others that have stood in my way...' _ Kuno thought as he fought to push those thoughts back, he was about to be comforted by Shampoo, only to have Sasuke interfere as he saw that his master had fallen, yet again.

"Master Kuno!" Sasuke shouted as he dropped to his knees and was about to help. Neither noticed Shampoo as she, right before Sasuke went to aid Kuno she had reached her hand out towards the fallen Samurai.

"I'm alright, Sasuke..." Kuno commented, his hair falling over his eyes, as if to hide his shame. "Retrieve my weapon, knave..." Kuno commanded, right before standing up.

"As you wish Master Kuno!" Sasuke replied, somewhat awkwardly going over to bring Kuno's bokken back.

"I'm still the Blue Thunder of Furinkan High, you needn't worry about me." Kuno stated, although with much less cockiness behind his tone.

Cologne all the while watched his display a little ways off, smiling as she knew that she had made an impact but what he said was still some sign of him clinging to his precious ego. "Not quite there yet... but certainly some progress." Cologne said to herself.

After tending to his wounded ego Kuno had begun training his bokken strikes, trying to force more speed into his thrusts and had gotten as far as cutting trees with it, given the wooden nature of his sword that was certainly a feat but as he did so he noticed that it still wasn't fast enough to even compete with Cologne's speed, not by a long shot. _'Faster...' _he shouted in his mind as he performed another strike, _'Faster! I mustn't let that decrepit bag of bones best me! I! The blue thunder!'_

During Kuno's training, Cologne finished the preparations for the training grounds as various sticks had been stabbed into the river, creating a balance based training exercise seemed to be the theme, Shampoo all the while was making preparations for their meals, watching them going about their busy ways, Sasuke aiding Shampoo with any ingredients she may require.

"There... the stage is almost set." Cologne stated as she hopped from one bamboo pole to another and finish the course by doing a front flip into the air, whacking the end of her cane to the end of a loose-fitting balance beam, the force she applied to the strike she ending up using to her advantage as her momentum propelled her forward, causing her to land on the ground with her arms extended outwards. "You!" Cologne exclaimed, pointing towards the training Kuno family member. "Shampoo! You as well!" she then pointed towards her.

Shampoo while stirring the pot stopped to look at her great-grandmother, she looked towards Sasuke. "Can ninja finish?" she asked.

"Oh yes! I'm quite familiar with this stew!" Sasuke stated, smiling as a good amount of time had gone by since Kuno had either yelled at him or demanded something, on top of that helping Shampoo was a delight as she wasn't too pushy or demanding.

Kuno sighed as he looked towards the aged master, as much as he knew that taking orders from her would only worsen his situation he wasn't really in a position to be arguing, when he turned to her he happened across the training course she had set up. "Perhaps you have me mistaken for someone else, I training in a much different manner than this..."

"Child you're not very bright..." Cologne stated, narrowing her eyes, earning a glare from Kuno. "This course will train you, force precise movements and perhaps even allow you to compete with your peers, remember that balance is key and when you've achieved balance, I'll help you attain greater speed... after all, isn't that what you want?" Cologne smirked, easily able to figure out Kuno's training intentions.

"Then there isn't much choice, is there..." Kuno sighed, getting thoroughly annoyed with this whole thing, though it wasn't as if he had much else to do, other than sample fine foods and find other methods to attain Akane's attention but a deal was a deal and now he was suffering for it.

"Good... and your opponent will be none other than my great-granddaughter." Cologne stated, looking towards Shampoo who seemed to flinch at the prospect of training just above a moderately quick stream but upon remembering who her opponent was, she quickly relaxed.

Kuno pondered the idea of taking Shampoo on but even though he knew what the outcome would be, he foolishly stuck to his pride and readied himself, charging the balance poles and jumping upwards, if one were to be beneath him they could see his form eclipse the sun momentarily, giving him a radiant aura of confidence, shortly after a large splash could be heard as Kuno had failed to land, earning a look of disappointment from the two amazons, Sasuke only worried as his master was being pushed downstream but saw that Kuno had latched on to one of the bamboo sticks.

"This may take a while..." Cologne stated with flat eyes, Shampoo showing a similar expression, nodded her head.

Kuno was then seen climbing the bamboo stick much like a rope climbing exercise although in a hurried pace before reaching the top and attaining his balance, panting slightly and coughing up bits of water. "Let us begin!" he shouted, pointing towards Shampoo with his trademark weapon.

* * *

><p><strong>Akane<strong>

Akane sat on her bed and, holding her pillow as she thought about this day and how she could reflect on it. She had allowed her weakness to get the best of her, which was something so uncommon of her. Why did she let Ranma go after Ryoga alone? She wasn't usually one to allow these sort of things to happen, she had been Ryoga's friend up until his declaration of war, maybe she could have helped, maybe she could have done something to change the outcome. Ryoga was a friend of hers, one who listened to her before, someone who seemed like a true friend, _'But he actually just wanted to get closer to me... more than friends...' _she thought, looking towards her window with a feeling of longing in her but what she longed for she had no clear idea now, she wondered if it was because of Ranma, _'Ranma...' _she thought in a whispered tone, she recalled her recent reactions towards the pig-tailed boy's actions or to be more accurate Ranma's actions as a girl. Ranma acting so differently, there wasn't anything magical going on, everything Ranma said to her was something only the Ranma she knew would say, this wasn't the koi rod incident, this wasn't some magical artifact or anything, this was Ranma trying to help Ryoga. _'Why don't you open up to me, Ranma!?' _Akane thought with gritted teeth, right before throwing her pillow towards the wall,"You said that you picked me but-but..." Akane mumbled as tears gently fell from her eyes, the droplets hitting the ground like rain.

Fighting back tears the Tendo child thought back to the last thing Ranma had said to her, before disappearing in her room.

_**Flashback**_

_Just moments before they returned Kasumi was walking towards the door from the hallway, her hands clasped together as there was somewhat of a pleasant smile on her face, per usual, that was until the door was slammed open by Ranma, she power walked her way to the stairs was Akane tried her best to keep up, trying to reach out to the red-headed girl but as Ranma was about mid-way into the stairs, Ranma spoke to her. _

"_I need ta' be alone..." _

There was a long period of silence as Akane stood still, her hand placed over her left bosom, trying to ease the feeling of panic but as many before her, she failed to do anything with this gesture."Ranma..."

* * *

><p><strong>Ranma<strong>

Once Ranma was at a safe enough distance from anyone she rested her back up against her door as she slid down, her bottom bumping into the door as she brought her knees close to her chest and hugged them, a saddened expression out for display on her delicate features. This was her choice, she choose Akane because they had been through so much, till this point in time. After she had made the claim of choosing Akane she couldn't bring herself to really do anything and who could blame her? Maybe in time her heart would heal and eventually she'd find a cure to her curse and have a happy family with Akane. "Argh! Stop it you stupid... stupid heart!" Ranma muttered, sighing heavily shortly after.

Sometime had passed as she stared at her futon, as she remembered that moment when she and Ryoga ended up entangled in a mess of sheets, when thinking about how that sounded in her head, a blush crossed her face and she quickly turned to look away, her heart began to beat quickly when she did, her breath becoming somewhat shallow as she fought the panic in her chest. Then came that moment where she heard Ryoga claim his love for her, the honest sincerity in his tone, the way his voice quivered as he spoke, to her, there wasn't some superficial need to gain status, no cheesy poetic moonlight meeting destiny, no traditions sake promise or even some promise as childhood friends, there was someone pouring their heart out, knowing that the result might pain them like a thousand pin-needles to the heart. Now she was feeling it too, this was the feeling she had always hoped to avoid with the women of Nermia, breaking someone's heart in and the worst part of it all; she wanted to return some of those feelings. _'This is what I get for offering myself as his fake girlfriend, isn't it?' _she thought, _'I shouldn't have done it, he always goes too far...' _although she felt that way, she knew that she did the same when it came to things that shouldn't have been pushed, how many times had she claimed to be, something to Ryoga? How many times had she used her charms or tricked him into something? Made him even think she was some other girl who fell in love with him, was this karma? But was Ryoga as guilty the only guilty one? How many times had she caught herself mentally debating with herself as to whether or not to be something more with Ryoga? Lingering on that idea her mind eventually came back to the various kisses they had and the most recent close calls and how Ryoga actually wanted a kiss from Ranma, to be consensual? That was a luxury she had constantly been refused, especially when it came to Shampoo. Although there where times were Ryoga had forced himself on her a bit, but not like she hadn't, but those were for the sake of keeping him around.

It was then that Ranma's face became disgruntled as she continued to think about the moments where she kissed with Ryoga and how some of the more intimate ones had effected her, especially that time Ryoga groped her rear. "Ugh..." Ranma groaned lightly as her brow twitched as a light blush formed on her cheeks. _'Why didn't I slap him for that!?' _Ranma thought, then concluding that simply slapping him was too, woman like, _'I mean kick his ass! Damn it!' _Ranma thought as she was no suddenly on the floor, gripping the sides of her head while rolling around on the floor, until she realized that she was on floor and stopped, resting on her back she stared at the ceiling for a time as she allowed everything to sink in. "Do I... have a crush... no... but..." Ranma drew out in soft whispers.

"Ryoga..."

* * *

><p><strong>Shampoo &amp; Kuno<strong>

The two martial artists appeared to be a in a bit of a stare down as they waited for the call to begin, Cologne acting as referee for this little match; from the sidelines. "Begin!"

Kuno charged forward with his bokken drawn back, screaming a powerful battle cry, before a loud splash was heard as it appears that Shampoo lazily side stepped Kuno's attack, as it was far too predictable. "Is too easy..." she stated, her eyes going flat.

Kuno yet again latched onto one of the bamboo balance beams and proceeded to climb it again, doing so in a comically fast manner as water dripped from his clothing and hair, giving him some additional weight. "That was but luck!" he exclaimed.

"Child you must focus your attacks, predict her move-"

"Silence!" Kuno exclaimed, throwing his arm out and shouting. "I needn't your assistance!" he claimed before turning his attention to Shampoo once more, "I've bested you before! I shall do so once more!"

"Is lucky!" Shampoo shouted, blushing and pointing to him, remembering how awful she felt when Ranma told her who he had actually been into. Cologne seemed to grow more and more annoyed with the two as it seemed that bickering amongst one another was their thing, which made her wonder if they had something similar to what Ranma and Akane had, as she saw that the two continued to bickering, her patience continued to dwindle, so she took action.

In an instant she flew across the training beams and bopped them on the heads with her cane, earning cries of pain from the two love birds. "Enough!"

"Why hit Shampoo!?" she screamed, an anime tear forming on her eye as she grit her teeth.

"That is because you let your emotions get the best of you!" Cologne then followed with, "And you! Let me finish! Focus your attacks and take time to listen to her movements, from there your instincts will guild you." Cologne said, looking towards Kuno. The aged martial artist took her place back at the sidelines and watched as Kuno and Shampoo readied themselves once more, after they finished licking their wounds that is.

Kuno narrowed his eyes, at first he had no intention of taking Cologne's advice and felt that his ways were much better but as he pondered it for a second, perhaps she did have a slight chance of being right so he took a moment to look at Shampoo's stance and proceeded to charge forward, swinging in a sideways arch, which she quickly evaded by the jumping on Kuno's head, though being that Ranma had jumped from Kuno's head plenty of times, he was familiar with how it worked and had even developed a keen sense of momentum direction, allowing his instincts to take control he aimed where he felt her force would take her, so he swung his form around abruptly and threw his bokken towards Shampoo.

Shampoo who went about the training as though it wasn't a big deal, had failed to take notice of Kuno's bokken being swung towards her, whereas Ranma in this situation would have the keen senses to dodge dissipate the fact he was distracted, Shampoo however didn't have the luxury, the of Kuno's bokken collided with Shampoo's stomach, catching her by surprise as her eyes widened she fell to the water.

At first Kuno took a smug sense of satisfaction in his victory but instead of being greeted with a disappointed Shampoo emerging from the water in a fit of jealous rage, he saw a purple haired kitten being taken down stream to who knows where.

"Mroooow!" She cried, kicking about in the water, being much to small to fight the current.

Kuno's eyes widened as he sudden became alert, "Mistress Shampoo!" he shouted, diving into the water beneath them and swimming to companion's side.

"Master Kuno!" Sasuke screamed in worry while filling the bowels for their meal, just about to go aid his master only to have Cologne appear next to him, her cane keeping him from proceeding. This earned a look from Sasuke, Cologne only replied with a narrowing of her eyes, as if telling him to not interfere.

Shampoo kicked frantically before she saw Kuno and tried to reach for him as desperately as he was trying to reach her, upon making contact the Shakespearean poet took hold of her, using all his might to push against the current, till they were at a safe enough point on the coast, water dripping from both their forms, but what was more shocking than the fact that Kuno risked his life for her, was that he was now cradling Shampoo's cat form in his arms, bringing her in close, in a very concerned way.

"My, my... either you're an extreme cat lover or an extreme Shampoo lover..." Cologne stated, now standing ten feet away from the two. Shampoo in her feline state was only blushing while Kuno cradled her and that only increased as Cologne teased them, suddenly Shampoo vanished from Kuno's arms and reappeared a few feet away, hurriedly running towards her bag, Kuno would have taken the time to feel as embarrassed as Shampoo but as he watched her leave, he felt a sudden stinging sensation; three slash marks appearing across his face.

"Ahhhhh!" he cried, holding his face and writhing in pain.

Cologne suppressed her gut busting laughter, muttering them with her sleeve as she snickered, _'All according to plan...' _she thought, smirking while Kuno continued to try an ease his pain.

* * *

><p><strong>Genma &amp; Soun<strong>

"_Sir...sir!" _

A voice called out to Genma as appeared to be fading in an out, his eyes fluttering open as it inspected the area he was in, his mind was now in a haze as the blurred vision of a man appeared to be kneeling down in front of him, the form then reached out and shook his shoulder, earning another groan from Genma as his eyes adjusted before focusing, the formally blurred vision of a man revealing himself to be a police officer.

"Wha? Where am I?" Genma asked, as from moving his head about he felt the sting of the dart dangling on his neck, he reached his hand out and yanked it. "Ah!" he groaned, rubbing his neck.

"Who did this to you, sir?" The officer asked, leaning forward. It was then that Genma looked around and saw that Soun was also being waken up in the same way as he was. "Tendo! Get up!"

Soun shook his head a few times as drool hang from the side of his mouth and when he awoke he found another officer staring at him but thankfully for him the officer was holding the tranquilizer in his hand, so there wasn't any pain from his end. "What's going on, Saotome?"

The officer who had questioned Genma, found his eyes widening as he realized something, "Wait... you two wouldn't happen to be Genma Saotome and Soun Tendo, would you?"

The one that had removed the tranquilizer from Soun's back also came to the same realization and suddenly beamed from the prospect of meeting the two. "You're the sages of Poke'mon!" he exclaimed.

"I remember seeing you two at the tournament!" Genma's officer exclaimed as he took Genma's hand and began to shake it, his partner doing the same with Soun. "It's an honor to meet you! I'm Hachiro and this is my partner Junichi!"

"While... it seems we have quiet the reputation Saotome..." Soun stated, dumbfounded at the spectacle of a scene unfolding. Genma mirrored Soun's expression but Soun came to realize that if they were under suspicion for the damage in the area, that could be disastrous to their budget, especially their Poke'mon funds!

"Y-yes! Thank you for your support!" Genma exclaimed, rubbing the back of his head. "I would've won the entire thing had I not been beaten by that Sadami kid!"

"I honestly thought you were cheated, mister Saotome..." Hachiro commented, nodding his head with his eyes closed but then remembered. "Oh! Almost forgot but back to my previous question... who did this to you?"

Genma was tempted to say Ryoga's name as that had been their intended target but then remembered the humiliation Kodachi had brought both Soun and him and instantly found his anger raising, someone with no honor deserved no mercy, even though in this instance it was like the teapot mocking the kettle but Genma was too enraged to really care too much about being a hypocrite. "It was Kodachi Kuno! She caused all this damage here!"

"Would you happen to have any proof, mister Saotome?" Hachiro asked, raising a brow.

It was then that Genma stopped. Eyes blinking as he had hoped that merely his word would've been enough, that had placed somewhat of a damper on his revenge, that was until Kami-sama himself... or dumb luck, whichever was more appropriate had smiled upon the two as Junichi during all this was studying the tranquilizer in question, as he observed it he noticed something.

"Property of Kodachi Kuno..."

"Looks like we have your proof, mister Saotome... we hope you two join the League of Adult Poke' Masters." the fellow Poke'mon fan waved off.

"Of course we will, son! Only an adult can master a children's card game!" Soun exclaimed, placing his hand to his chest as the their fellow man children were off to see a certain Kuno family member.

The two officers took a few more pictures before waving the two off, Soun and Genma returning the wave. "Dodged another bullet there, didn't we, Tendo?"

"Yes... it seems that our luck is looking up?" Soun stated questionably as any moment that it seemed that their luck was going well, something would come and contradict that very idea. There was a pause as the two came to the conclusion, that Ryoga had gotten away, again.

"He's long gone... isn't he, Tendo?" Genma asked, as both their shoulders slouched at the same time.

"Yes... it would seem we're quiet the failures lately..." Soun said, eyes watering pathetically.

Mopping could only last so long before they came to the conclusion that although Ryoga wasn't around, there was still someone else to deal with, the one that Ryoga had proclaimed his love to. Genma upon reaching this squared his shoulders and tilted his head down, the sun's light gleaming off his glasses.

"There's still one more thing for me to do, Tendo..."

* * *

><p><strong>Ranma <strong>

Once returning from the bathroom the red-headed girl went back into her room, avoiding any contact with the members of the Tendo household, especially Akane. Although Ranma had accepted herself as being with Akane, she couldn't come to face Akane, not after losing someone she considered a close friend... or possibly more. Now in her room, she sat down with the bucket of warm water she had brought from the bathroom.

"Been awhile since I was a guy..." Ranma muttered as she stared at her reflection in the water, whenever she'd take the time to look herself in the mirror, as a girl, she couldn't help but feel as though this person wasn't Ranma Saotome but some cruel curse, some stranger that she took the form of, but now she was staring at someone who's feelings were just the same as male Ranma. There was a moment of silence before Ranma took the washcloth from the bucket and dipped it in the water, wringing it out over her head, reverting back to her birth form. For a time the Saotome prodigy watched as his male reflection looked into his eyes, but soon became obscured as Ranma's damp hair caused some excess to drip onto the bucket, each droplet causing a ripple in the water, followed by a soft echoing, '_Is this really me...?'_ Ranma thought.

Soon after a knocking came at his door, and since the sound seemed rather soft he figured it was Akane. "Look... I don't wanna' talk, Akane..." Ranma replied, heaving out an exasperated sigh.

"Boy! It's your father!" Genma's voice boomed as he slide the door to their room open.

"Huh? Pops?" Ranma asked, shaking off some water. "Leave me alone..." Ranma scuffed, averting his eyes from him, having a pretty good idea as to what Genma was there for.

"Look... I get that you're going through somethings, boy... but Ryoga's lost his mind, you're clearly not into him as much as he is to you, right?" Genma asked, the entire time he spoke his glasses were gleaming light of them, as if to emphasize the importance of his words.

Ranma for a time only replied with silence, then averted his eyes yet again. "Course I don't..." Ranma said, unconvincingly but such lack of subtly was lost on someone like Genma, who only choose what he wanted to see... and fulfill his promise to Soun.

"I know a thing or two about losing a friend..." Genma sighed, arching his head back as he closed his eyes, the light no longer hiding his eyes, since he changed the angle of light. In his many years Genma has had to make many promises only to end up breaking them, causing blossoming friendships to only wither and die, leaving nothing behind but scattered pedals for the winds of time to blow away, ushering the winds of hate.

"You have your whole life ahead of you to make friends... don't waste your hope, on the hopeless." Genma stated.

Throughout Genma's attempt at proper fathering he felt that maybe he could, for once, offer some proper advice but that ended the moment he implied giving up on Ryoga, it struck a cord Ranma didn't want being stricken and that caused a vein to bulge. "Out, old man..."

"Wait! I'm not do-"

"Out!" Ranma shouted, before Genma knew what was happening, he found himself being kicked out of the room, his face colliding with the wall across from it.

Ranma sighed as he leaned his back up against the wall, his eyes staring at the ground beneath him. _'_"Even as a guy I'm still thinkin' about him..." Ranma mumbled, but was at least glad that he stopped having flashes of him in his girl form kissing Ryoga, it was then that Ranma's mind flashed to an image of Ryoga and his current male self about to kiss, Ryoga dipping Ranma slightly, Ryoga's hand on the back of Ranma's head.

"That's not better!" Ranma shouted, gritting his teeth, grabbing the sides of his head, tugging at his hair. _(It's a joke people, don't get so bent outta' shape.)_

* * *

><p><strong>Ukyo &amp; Kodachi<strong>

Both Kodachi and Ukyo appeared to be bandaging their wounds, thankfully like everyone else in Nermia, their bodies were built to endure. Kodachi was finishing wrapping some bandages around her arm, whereas Ukyo finished wrapping her forehead as it had been left with quiet the mark, so much that some blood had seeped its way through some of the bandages, leaving a very visible blood stain.

"If only my foolish brother hadn't taken Sasuke, then I needn't bandage myself!" she whimpered as she wasn't doing all too good of a job on herself.

Ukyo as time went on came to the conclusion that this women was so insufferable and that perhaps she might have been better off without Kodachi, it wasn't worth the headaches having to deal with such a whiny, overly cocky, eccentric women like her. "Geez! Would you shut up!?" Ukyo shouted, having had enough.

Kodachi being somewhat taken back, found that she needed to defend herself. "I am not the one that needs to keep their mouth shut! You were the one that allowed that fool to charge his attack! Couldn't you simply strike him before his attack was charged!?"

Ukyo took a step forward, holding her clenched fist out towards her. "He would've just shot me at moment I got close enough!" Ukyo shouted, a blush of embarrassment across her cheeks, but was right to some extent as Ranma had complained about that issue when the ki blasts first began between Ranma and Ryoga. "Whatever! We're done here!" Ukyo exclaimed, reaching for her heavily damaged Spatula, some anime tears dropping from her eyes as he realized that it was pretty damaged. "I'll get Ranma by myself!"

Kodachi narrowed her eyes, "Let's see how far you get!" she shouted, reaching for a nearby dart gun she had kept handy.

Ukyo immediately reached into her pocket and retrieved the cure, right before Kodachi's dart shot the Okonomiyaki chef. "What!?" Ukyo shouted as she saw that Ukyo had stabbed herself with the cure. "When did she?" she asked, looking towards the stand where she kept the shots, which were labeled as 'Epinephrine'. Before she even had a chance to look back at Ukyo, the chef had darted towards her at speeds far greater than her average and thous the Kuno child was smacked from her side, causing her to be thrown across the room and crash into the wall, Kodachi cringed as she slide down the wall, unconscious.

* * *

><p><strong>Ranma &amp; Akane<strong>

This was certainly a rare moment for Ranma as he was attempting to meditate, perhaps find some sort of answer to all this. The pig-tailed boy took a deep breath, relaxing his demeanor as much as he possibly could, his thoughts fading as he simply focused on his breathing, letting the world around him fade, until Ryoga's image flashed in his mind, all the times he had come to his aid, all the times he had challenged him, pushed him to grow and rethink his strategy, all the time they had spent mastering their art and even admitting to one another their importance as friends, even the funny moments didn't escape him as was indicated from the chuckle that came on Ranma face. Then came the awkward and confused feelings of the koi rod incident, past that there were the more recent events, the ones involving their actual interest in one another and how they had gotten to this point. Then came a whispered voice in his mind.

"_Ranma Saotome... I love you."_

Ranma gulped as she felt that familiar panicky feeling in her chest, the same kind of feeling that came with asking someone out for the first time, he felt scared and nervous as well as a little excited, his breathing becoming a little shallow. It felt as though little steam clouds were coming out of his ears.

"Ranma?" A voiced called out to him, as it opened the door, revealing it to be the blue haired Tendo.

"Ah!" Ranma yelped as he rose his hands to ward off evil, only to see that it was Akane and found himself blushing in embarrassment. Ranma quickly composed himself before addressing her. Akane for her part was a bit confused but decided not to push on Ranma's reaction.

"Ranma... can I talk to you, it's important." Akane stated, as she got down on her knees, acting civil towards the pig-tailed boy.

Ranma sighed deeply, apparently no one liked to listen to him whenever he wanted sometime to think. Well, he figured there was no point in fighting it anymore, "Doubt you're gonna' listen if I say no..." Ranma said, rotating his hand as to usher her onto continuing.

Akane felt a vein pulsate in her head and had to force herself not to go back to her old ways, even though she really wanted to. "Did you mean what you said?" she asked, blushing and looking to the side, holding her hand close to her chin while the other placed firmly on her lap. "About me."

Ranma gave a pause, he had said that when he choose to play it safe and pick Akane. Silence befell the room before Ranma spoke, only building the tension in the room, "Not now..." Ranma replied, choosing to avoid the topic.

The blue haired Tendo knew that this was probably be the response given the last events but knew that if she didn't say anything now that it might be too late, but she also didn't want to stop the conversations before it even started, maybe she could ease him into it. "Are you still feeling this way because of Ryoga?"

"Geez Akane... whatever gave you that idea..." Ranma replied, his tone dripping with sarcasm as an annoyed expression graced his features.

"I'm just trying to help, Ranma!" Akane shouted, leaning forward as she did.

Ranma felt the fire that he used to when dealing with Akane and he acted on it, as there was some clear annoyance he had to deal with. "Oh! That's new! Cause most of the time you're either hitting me or jumpin' ta' conclusions! Do you know what's it like to be me? Do you know what's it like not to have any real friends, Akane?"

Akane was taken back, she actually did have friends besides Ranma, she used to have Ryoga ontop of that. "A-an how's that my fault?" she shot back, blushing in annoyance.

"How isn't it your fault!? First day I get there turns out most of the guys there are mad for ya', then I come and they say it's okay only to figure out that mosta' em' aren't okay with it!" Ranma finished, lowering his head and scuffing. "Then with you calling me a pervert all the time making it even harder! So I get like zero friends and a hundred loons chasing after me!"

Akane had to take sometime to absorb all this and Ranma did have a point, although quiet a lot of guys at the school had said they were okay with Akane being off the market, she should have known it couldn't have been that easy, day in and day out all of them fought for the chance to take Akane out on a date and to suddenly give up after working so hard. Of course they'd hold some resentment, there was of course Daisuke and Hiroshi but Ranma could never really connect with them as much as he could with Ryoga. And that was the key word in all of this, Ryoga.

"And what does Ryoga mean to you...?" Akane asked, her head lowered as if dreading Ranma's answer. Though she asked this she still did feel somewhat guilty for the many things that happened to Ranma.

Ranma's eyes widened as the conversation had taken such a sudden turn, "H-he's justa' fri—"

"Come on, Ranma! We both know that's not true! I saw what's happening between you an him! I'm not blind!" Akane shouted, trying to stop Ranma before he lied, yet again. "What does Ryoga really mean to you...?" she asked, tears threatening to fall as she awaited his answer.

Ranma gulped as he tried to avoid her gaze, frankly the look of pain in Akane's eyes got to him. They had their differences but deep down they honestly cared for one another, even if she was the cause of grief in his life she was also, in a strange sort of sense was his friend, much like Ryoga was to him. Now here he was being pinned by Akane, forced to answer something he wasn't entirely sure about.

"I... with Ryoga... I..." Ranma paused as it seemed as though he couldn't swallow, his eyes wide as he fought for the answer, a blush creeping on his face, feelings similar to what he felt when he had experienced a romantic moment with Akane, which he fought against and tried to deny.

"A-Akane... I..." Ranma felt as though coherent thought escaped him.

It was then that the sound of shattering glass was heard from Ranma's window as Ukyo came crashing through.

_**TO BE CONTINUED...**_

* * *

><p>Okay guys, I know what you're thinking... where was Ryoga in all this? He will be appear in the next chapter don't you worry. There was a lot to get covered in this and I figured it was time I developed Ranma's feelings for Ryoga and explored them a little more in this story, since we've had Ryoga's development throughout this whole story. Sure I've taken the time for Ranma as well but not as much as Ryoga.<p>

Anyways, the chapter is bigger than I thought I should make it because I felt that it might be nice to get a bigger chapter after 7 months. Since the last.

_**Foxes from the Foxxy~**_

_**DaisukiFox~**_


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